Susan,

First off please put a date to your Signature Line so we all know when you started the rad.

As Deb says we all can react differently to the same Tx and some breeze thru without any problems and some start having problems day one but most of us (concurrent chemo/rad) are basically OK until about the 4th week and then we get progressively worse until about the 3rd week post Tx. You will probably have some or all of the following: loose your taste, start producing thick muscos, develop mouth sores, loose weight, get dehydrated, have constipation issues, loose the hair on the back of your neck, develop a tender red neck, have nausea issues, swallowing difficulties, tight jaw, loose your voice, develop total body weakness and finally the dry mouth kicks in. It's not a pleasant treatment and the chemo does add to the problems and you didn't mention if you were having chemo.

When you do finally walk out of that tunnel you will remain weak for a few months. The dry mouth and taste at least for me returned over a 2 year period and they seemed to improve at the same time. By the end of year 2 my taste and saliva had returned to what I guesstimate 95% of my pre Tx norm. I did develop thyroid issues and I have to take a small daily pill. I also ended up loosing some of my hearing due to my chemo (cisplatin) but really these are nothing more than minor inconveniences.