Hi, my name is clive, i was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue in jan 2010 and had half of my tongue removed in march. I had 6 weeks of radiotherapy to my neck area, as the cancer had spread to some of the nodes, and also 2 sessions of chemotherapy (cisplatin). My treatment finished around the middle of july,but by that time i was unable to eat a thing and had to have an NG tube for 4 weeks. Thankfully, that has now been removed, but i have got thrush and mucositis which is very painful when i try to eat, and sore most of the time. I have been told many different healing times, but at present, things have not improved and my tongue is still very swollen making it difficult to eat anything other than pureed foods.I would appreciate any help or ideas as to when to expect some change for the better, and anything that might help with the soreness,i think i have tried most of the standard medicins available! Thank you all.

Hi KB, welcome to OCF. It takes everyone different amounts of time to recover. Every person reacts slightly differently to surgery, medications, the radiation and chemo. For the thrush you should be on prescription meds like diflucan. Thursh will clear up very quickly, mine would improve within a day of starting the medication.

Do you use magic mouthwash before you attempt to eat? Its a mixture of lidocaine, malox and benedryl or similar ingrediants. You would swish that in your mouth for about 20 seconds and spit it out. It will numb your mouth for 15-30 minutes which should enable you to eat easier.

Most of all, congrats on becoming a survivor and finished the brutal treatments. Hope you bounce back quickly.

Hi Christine, thank you for your quick reply, i will give what you recomend a try and see how it goes.The mouth wash sounds promising as it would certainly help with the eating. Thanks again and all the best with your recovery, Clive.

Welcome to the forum Clive!

Hi Clive, my boyfiend had whats seems like the same op as you but on july 22nd. we are in week 5 of 6 weeks radio and 6 chemo sessions, he also had 3 nodes that it had spread to. It is wonderfull that you are back on purees and gives us something to look forward to. His tongue still looks kinda golf ball sized and although we are told it will go down there does not seem to be any evidence yet. I hope you continue to improve

Hi Tabitha, it would appear that your boyfriend has had a very similar operation to me, so at 5 weeks into his radiotherapy, i would imagine that his mouth is feeling quite sore. My tongue is still a bit swollen but do reassure your boyfriend that his tongue will return to normal, but it does vary in time scale from person to person. I finished my treatment about 10 weeks ago and for the last couple of days i have moved on to soft food and no longer have to puree everything. Please tell your boyfriend to hang in there as it does get better, and his tongue will go down. Speedy recovery, Clive.