After my surgery, swallowing wasn't too back once the initial healing of the tongue happened. It went downhill fairly seriously towards the end of Radiotherapy (June 2010) but is now somewhat improved. I still feel a tightness in my throat when I swallow but I sense it is slowly (and I mean slowly) improving as is my supply of saliva. For some time I used to wake up 3 or 4 times with my tongue glued to the top of my mouth but now I make it through the night albeit with a slighlty gummy mouth most mornings. My consultant says things will continue to improve for some month still so I remain optimistic. (only way to be!)
My chin is looking fairly good after the neck dissection (April2010) althought my neck is a little lopsided after they removed lymph nodes from one side. The tissue around the scar is still quite stiff or hard to touch but again I am sure it is slowly improving. I do some simple neck stretching exercises as recommended by my physio which I believe assist in healing the scar tissue but I dont use any creams.
Hope this helps Martin