LOL Ratman! Jaw opening is a definate problem - MO called it Trismus. At the onset of treatment my MO told me to not let the opening get smaller that the width of two fingers put in sideways - get the visual. Anyway, he gave me a wad of tongue depressers and said to put them in my mouth everyday as exercise. I did - sort of. Anyway I was able to keep it at "two fingers" and once out of treatment by adding more tongue depressers, I got it back to 3 fingers wide open. Woo-hoo I can get a hamburger in it now. So, get some popsicle sticks/tongue drepressers and just keep adding a few every time you can and stretch it open. I did this as many times a day as I thought of it.


DX 2/10/09; Stage 1 SCC side of tongue; Partial Gloss; PEG in 3/3/09; 3 Cisplatin; 35 IMRT; PEG out 7/17/09; Eating via mouth and walking 3 miles/day 4 wks after treatment end. 50 pound weight loss; Clear PET 09/09 and 09/10