Hello. Welcome to the forum. Although I haven't gone through treatment personally, I'm the caretaker for my mom who finished the bulk of her treatment late last year. She is part of a study that included induction chemo (Carboplatin and Taxol (Taxotere)) followed by concurrent chemo-radiotherapy which consisted of a 24 hour infusion of Taxol for five consecutive days with one week off over a period of ten weeks. The side effects you mention seem consistent with what my mom went through, however she still has her PEG -- so you're a step ahead of the game. The dry mouth and dry throat is still a problem and she too didn't have much relief from Salagen. I'm looking for options as well. I've been told that her salivary glands will most likely not return to the way they were prior to this whole ordeal (the radiation kicks the hell out of those glands), so I encourage her to drink as much water as possible to help keep things moist. The issue there is that the inside of her mouth still burns (chemo-radiotherapy ended around the third week of September, a biopsy of the primary (inside of cheek) was taken in November -- and is still healing, and she had to have her esophagus stretched at the same time, hence the ongoing pain. Your weight loss seems consistent with the other patients that I met who went through the same study as my mom. It's a rough road, but her neck dissection, biopsy and scans have all come back negative -- as have those of the other patients I've met -- so hang in there.