Ken,

Perhaps you should start your own topic but I will try and briefly answer your questions.

If you only finished Tx a week ago then most likely you have another couple of weeks left before things will start to improve. In fact don't be alarmed if you feel worse than you ever have in the days ahead as it's quite common.

After you "walk out of that dark tunnel" as we say you will slowly start to recover. You will still have bad days but over time they will lessen.

Your taste and saliva will improve but we think your recovery period can last up to 2 years, not 9 months. In fact my biggest improvement in taste and saliva came at 14 months PT (post Tx) for me and I even saw a slight improvement at 24 months PT. We all react differently to this Tx but don't be discouraged if things take longer than you were told or you want.

Re the eating and swallowing. You MUST continue to swallow every day even though it's painful. it doesn't take long before your muscles just forget how to swallow. For me I was able to eat solid foods (fruit cocktail, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes w/ gravy, etc) about 3 weeks PT. Nothing tasted like it wa supposed to and each bite was small and it took forever to eat a little but at least I was reclaiming some of my life back. It's critically important that you consume a large amount of calories and water from now on. I tried to average 3000 cals a day and believe me I still didn't gain a pound until after my first year of recovery.

I also had a strong will to fight this crap and get my life back to normal and I believe it helped me in my recovery phase.