Hi all,

Well - it has been a month and a half since my last update and I was thinking whether or not starting a new thread or keeping the updates in one spot.

I thought it might be best to continue this thread although we are technically in after-treatment phase as I thought it might be useful for people currently in treatment to see how others recover and regain portions of their life back over time.

Firstly the good news - we were given another NED last week by our ENT doctor who was very happy with how Jen has been recovering and told us that all the swelling in and around the nose cavity, throat & tongue have now settled down and it looks all clear. This is reinforced by the fact that Jen has much better speech & eating functions (she is able to have spicy food again - hooray!) and has not been any pain since treatment ended 6 months ago.

We also had our meeting with the endocrinologist for her thyroid related issues and we were told that the hypothyroidism was not caused by the radiation therapy as first assumed but was due to Hashimoto's Disease - a common thyroid related problem with females which would have occurred sooner or later but was accelerated by Jen's pregnancy.

On the other side of the spectrum, we do have some concerns over Jen's recent CT scans which showed some focal consolidation in her left lung. All three doctors we have spoken to think its either mild pneumonia or bacterial infection but have not been able to disregard it being something malignant. To make things more mysterious - Jen has shown zero symptoms apart from shortness of breath when carrying our baby around which makes things even more confusing..

Our ENT doctor has now passed this onto specialists at our treatment hospital for a final opinion and we are waiting for our next step while they figure this one out.

All in all, progress has been good but we are consistently reminded that this is a long-term fight and we will need a few more years for us to be given the all clear.

Wishing everyone all the very best in their quest to ridden the beast and I will make sure to keep you all in our prayers.

Jay, Jen & Hunter