Tony, listen to her! If you are losing pounds during massive healing, your body has already burned through fat and water stores. If you are up to it study the ATP cycle and metabolism. There are so many systems throughout the body using energy to fight off the toxicity of treatment and then residual radiation kicks the immune system into a cyclical overdrive. As an athletic or active person your metabolism is already running at a high but efficient level. Inactivity even for a few days drops the autosynaptic process of the lower motor neurons maintaining some tone. As the swelling, scar tissue, radiation damage and/or surgery to the neck start putting any constriction on the nerves, the motor neuron signal can be weaker and accelerate weakness and atrophy. Inefficiencies from the body fighting so many different things can also contribute to faster atrophy. Add to that constriction in blood flow from edema, etc. and muscles deteriorate much faster than just sitting around.

If you break the metabolic cycle too soon, the immune system may not have destroyed all the cells in the area treated.