Hi, Terri.
I'm sorry for what you and your husband have already gone through and what you are currently facing. I did not have rads/chemo, but I did have a neck dissection. I am a physical therapist and I recently made a post to someone who was having neck/shoulder issues. I will attache the post for you to read. Also, when the time is appropriate (per his MD), speech therapy may help him voice volume, etc. My surgeon always stresses that the first thing is to save his life, second thing is to address function, and third is to address cosmetics, if that is an issue.
Best of luck in this whole process. I hope he has the best possible outcome. Please keep coming back here for support whenever you need anything at all!
With care,
Kerri
"I am an orthopedic physical therapist and also a patient/survivor that had/has neck issues. After a neck dissection, your soft tissue anatomy is never quite the same. When you have soft tissue changes (muscle, tendon, fascia, ligaments, etc.), the joints stiffen up as well. You can also have referred pain from your cervical spinal nerves as well as your spinal accessory nerve, which must be physically moved out of the way during your neck dissection. Nerves are highly sensitive and they tend to hold a grudge when mess with them, no matter how gently.
Personally, I went to PT when I was about 2 months out of surgery. It's important to allow time for healing of the tissues before you start PT. In that time, one can certainly develop secondary issues, though. The swelling in the area can also contribute to the radicular pain (radiating pain in neck and shoulder). Since the pain is originating from your neck, doing the arm rotations will not do much. Be easy on yourself because you are so early into your recover. It's good to keep moving and to gently stretch, but nothing even close to vigorous. You could cause complications with your neck dissection that will only prolong your recovery. I would suggest GENTLE neck range of motion exercises."
" I did a youtube search and found these videos which are wonderful. In fact, I am going to make a handout with these links to give to my neck patients. He basically explains everything very well and uses all the techniques/educational components that I use every day.
I'm not sure of his credentials, but it sounds like he is a physical therapist. He is explaining The McKenzie Method, which is highly effective in treating spinal problems. It's especially helpful in that it teaches the patient how to treat themselves, which is exactly what we need to do to keep pain at bay for a lifetime. Even though he is talking about herniated disks/pinched nerves, etc., don't get hung up on the diagnoses. The techniques should work for you if you do them as prescribed. If they don't, please let me know ASAP. This works on the vast majority of patients, but remember that you had major surgery to the soft tissues around your spine and spinal nerves. You have to be VERY GENTLE! Your body needs to form scar tissue and let the tissues heal/sutures to hold, etc. Early mobilization/stretching is good, with caution. Discomfort (mild) with the stretching/range of motion is expected, but pain is a signal to stop. I would advise you to keep icing as well. Ten to fifteen minutes every couple of hours as needed. You have to let the blood flow back into the area for nutrition/oxygenation, so if you keep ice on it constantly, you will deprive the tissues of these things. Also, if the ice pack becomes room temp or warm, you are actually now heating the swollen area by keeping it on too long, which you don't want to do in the case of swelling.
Enough of my blabbing. Here are the youtube links. If they don't work for you for any reason, either technical or by your learning style, let me know and I will make adjustments. He has about 36 videos in his series. I tried to put them in an order that made sense. Let me know how it goes. Best of luck and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions!"
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Best of luck and please don't hesitate to ask any questions.
~Kerri
