Dysphagia is described in the main section of the web site. This is a swallowing issue that is caused by the radiation treatments when the nerves that control the swallowing function are damaged by getting rads. Some people like me have a mild version of it and it is only liquids that I have to be careful of as some of them always end up in my lungs. ( A barium swallow test should be done on him to determine where he is in all this). As he gets further out from treatments, this will either begin to improve or go the other way and get worse. Everyone is slightly different so there is no knowing for sure. He shouldn't try to overdo it right at the beginning, thinking that now out of treatment things are going to immediately go back to normal. Learning to swallow again will take time, and what was an unconscious reflex maneuver before, is no longer.

As to the swelling in his neck, that is normal especially after laying down for a long period. The body is still producing lots of lymph fluid, but now with the nodes gone, it has nowhere to go. I found that gentle massage everyday, from my head towards my chest, in the first two months after the ND helped quite a bit. Eventually, new lymph drainage passageways will be developed and this will stop. But it can take many months.