Hi Kelley,
and welcome to the group. I can sure relate to what you, Mark and Bob are saying. I am almost 11 months post Tx now and worry about every little variation in my throat. My Head & Neck guy always tells me everything "looks good" but it's hard for me to believe him! And I will never like the glove down the throat thing either. When I go to UCSF for my exams I usually have a few student doctors going there also. I actually prefer the scope but my understanding is that the palpation exam is very important. You can ask them to numb you and that makes the exam a lot easier. How they are able to attain any useful information in the 1 microsecond before I start gagging is anybodies guess ;-)

Like Mark and Bob said, a cold, dryness, post nasal drip or any change is enough to send me to the mirror with a flashlight. I also have a little texturing and hardness and also an area that seems to swell ever so slightly from time to time in the vicinity of where the tumor was. I have mentioned this many times, they have taken MRI's of it and tell me it's normal.

I know what you mean about your age perception I was a very young 55 going into this (people routinely though I was in my early 40's). My wife mentioned once that I looked like I was in my 80's when I was bottoming out in treatment. THAT made me feel really good! At least I am wearing a 29-30" waist jeans now which is great.

I would put the focus on the "clean bill of health". I know, for myself, that my "magic magnifying mind" would run wild if I let it.