Hi, Craig.

All of those anatomical changes are going to speak to you in the language of pain. Dysfunction follows pain and so does a myriad of issues that we'd rather not deal with.

The longer you have been living with these changes, the more time soft tissue and joint changes have to take place. Like Eric, I would suggest going to a skilled manual physical therapist that values exercise as medicine, but can understand your needs as a cancer survivor.

Physical therapists come in all forms, just like the rest of us. Word of mouth is good sometimes. I would suggest calling a few places and sort of "interviewing the prospective therapist" and explain your concerns and goals. It's important that you get a good fit with someone. Many places have websites where you can email the clinic ahead of time and see if there might be a good match for you at their clinic.

If the pain is really bad and you have trouble weight-bearing, then you may want to consider going to a place that utilizes aquatic therapy for a start. Once you progress through that, you can move to solid ground.

I wish you the best of luck in getting treatment for these residual problems. These things don't get better with age, that's for sure, so better to get on top of it now and wean to a maintenance program that you can live with.

Take care and I'd be happy to help in any way I can.

Kerri (your resident OCF physical therapist...JK!)

P.S. There are also some therapists that treat TMJ issues and more specifically, head and neck cancer patients. Your closest cancer center probably would be a good resource....and of course, you should be checking in with your doctor to see if he/she feels that any diagnostics are necessary at this point or just to start PT and see how it goes. Usually, if it's not significantly better in 6-8 weeks, then you should revisit your doctor for further investigation.