Michelle,

Your description fits very well with my own experience following radiation/chemo. The clear "water blisters" initially appeared down low, sort of in front of my bottom canine teeth, and also up across the back of my mouth/throat, and also on the inside my cheeks, I think. I believe these are the result of blocked "secondary salivary glands", blocked because the skin of the inside of your mouth is damaged and healing. This also explains why they appear when you eat; because your body is trying to send saliva to your mouth. And yes, they go down after a while.

In my case, these kept appearing for quite some time, and I seem to recall that initially they didn't hurt much but later the ones at the back of my throat did tend to get sore, like a sore throat. Also, the ones at the back of my throat were the last to finally stop forming.

The good news is, now that it's been 8 months since my treatment, they don't form any longer and I had forgotten all about them! I know, that probably sounds like a long time, but the point is, they should eventually stop forming and you are NOT alone in having this experience. I ended up living on vanilla Ensure for quite a while.......nothing salty or acidic about that stuff.

For a long time I couldn't handle anything spicy, salty or at all acidic. Even tomatoes would set off those blisters. It was a big deal when I could first start to handle rare filet mignon cooked in teriyaki sauce. Then I was able to move on to fresh poached salmon, then scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese. Now I can eat pretty much anything (some things require a water chaser, as my primary salivary glands did get damaged by the radiation and my mouth still tends to be dry), although spicy foods still pose a challenge, but even that is finally improving and I can, carefully, manage some spicy things now.

Like you, I also had one spot on my tongue that was quite painful, possibly caused by metal fillings nearby focusing the radiation (although I don't quite buy that explanation). That resolved relatively quickly.

I also lost pretty much all of my sense of taste (but not smell), and this was more upsetting than I would have expected, and also contributed to difficulty keeping weight on. My ability to taste came back sort of in stages, and now is, I think, pretty much back to normal.

Keep asking questions. There are lots of people on here with experience that can be very reassuring.

-Seth