I am wondering if anyone has ever had Dysphagia occur later- post treatments. Erik is 1 year out from his last re-occurance and is having trouble swallowing and choking alot. Of course the docs are all over this, getting PET, scope and meeting with the surgeon first thing next week- Im really hoping that there could be an alternative (like narrowing of esophogus) that could be caused by his radiation treatments- but he is three years out from radiation.
So I guess my question is..if he hasnt had any problems in the last 3 years with swallowing (except no saliva) could he have reactions to the chemo/rads this far out?

The answer is yes. I am one of the people ( there are others here) who have had swallowing issues develop 5-9 years out from treatments. There are a multitude of reasons for this, but much of it comes down to two things. 1. The initial anatomical changes that take place from the treatments, both surgical and radiation induced. Even in people that had no intra oral surgeries and just had radiation, the radiation actually burns away anatomy. 2. The nerve damage which occurs from the radiation. The ability to consciously control the swallowing mechanism, and the autonomic nervous control of portions of the swallowing process such as peristalsis waves that move the bolus of food once it enter the esophagus are both degraded. The damage to the nerves is slowly progressive over time. Another example is the impact on my facial muscles that received the largest doses of radiation. I am now at 10 years from treatment, unable to control certain facial muscles on the right side, including the right side of my mouth and lips as the nerves that control them have been damaged. None of this occurred in the first 5 years after treatment, but has progressively worsened since then. At least for me there is no solution to these problems. The incidence of silent aspiration has gotten worse (Have a barium swallow test to evaluate for this.) and the ability to take simple things like pills has gotten worse with it. I have had aspiration pneumonia several times in the last few years. As I age and this continues to get worse, it will become a progressively more dangerous problem.

I am 7 years out and last spring had my throat dilated so I could swallow easier. It had gotten progressively harder to swallow through the years. They put me out for the dialation, had a sore throat for a few days and have been swallowing fine ever since. Wish I had done it sooner! I too am having numbing around my mouth and lips. I had thought it was a side effect of my current chemo for breast cancer, but now that I read Brian's post and think back it has been coming on slowly for longer than this treatment. My smile hasn't been affected yet :-)