Jode - those thoughts of the treatment not being right are natural and it's hard to disagree with them in principle. Unfortunately the slash, burn and poison school of cancer treatment is more or less all that we have right now.

If you want to read a great, albeit long, summary of the history of this bitch of a condition and where we are now in treating it I recommend Dr. Siddarth Mukherjee's Pulitzer prize-winning masterpiece "The Emperor of All Maladies".

Meanwhile, my thoughts are with you as you fight on. So glad you're still able to eat! I hope some of the suggestions above help you with the saliva issue.

David 2
SCC of occult origin 1/09 (age 55)| Stage III TXN1M0 | HPV 16+, non-smoker, moderate drinker | Modified radical neck dissection 3/09 | 31 days IMRT finished 6/09 | Hit 14 years all clear in 6/23 | Radiation Fibrosis Syndrome kicked in a few years after treatment and has been progressing since | Prostate cancer diagnosis 10/18