Mickey, I ve been cancer free for 15 yrs now , I had stage 1 tonsil 12 weeks of radation back when cobalt was the method . Today i still only have about 60% of my saliva production. If i eat anything cold i immediatly lose all taste, spicy things are still pretty hard to handell, but itis a whole lot better than at first! It seemed the 1st 6months were the worst but constantly improved from that point on, i still have some trouuble swallowing but so much better than before. The way i got through the tough times was to think about the good things that came out of it. At start i weighed 260 bs got down to 160 by the end of treatment, No longer had to shave for first 4-5 yrs,now only have to trim around a natural gotee. The hair quit growing in my ears and after 15 yrs there is still very little. Keep your head up and youll do fine! Ron Cark