Dear friend,

I am also a survivor of laryngeal cancer of the vocal cords. Fortunately so far we have been able to save mine and today my voice is stronger than it has been in over a year or more. Expect the taste issues to continue. Mine started to clear up in about a month post treatment. Not much to be done about it unfortunately. I did discover that different types of tastes were affected differently. I had a good sense of taste for sweet, not so much salt, none at all for bitter and sour. I did find that I could taste hot chicken soup pretty well throughout everything for some reason so that is what I ate most of the time. (cant stand to even look at it now tho.. lol)

It is absolutely critical that you remain well hydrated. This can be tough, but for me this was the primary culprit for feeling so bad. I slept a lot first of all which limited the time I could intake, and then stack the taste issues, and swallowing issues on top of that and it was pretty hard to keep up. In retrospect, I could have used someone to keep track of that for me and make sure I stayed hydrated.

The coughing was pretty bad as well. Make sure your ent knows about and make sure you are taking your anti-inflammatory meds. This was critical for me and a few times I needed boosts for that as the swelling/coughing combo would be pretty devastating. Also ask about bronchial dilators.