Seven Weeks Post Treatment - Okay, one more week complete.

Head neck CT - had first post treatment follow up with ENT and a head neck CT before that. ENT looked down the throat, at the surgery site (left tonsil), but what impressed me most was he did a full oral cancer screening. And believe me I know now how one should look. He did the gauze around the tongue thing, and felt everything inside my mouth as well as lymph nodes both sides of neck. He made me gag at least 10 different times. He commented to his intern that throat constrictor muscles 9 and 10 work real well. Of course I asked him what those were, and he said, the ones that are making you gag.


Edit - I was rereading some of my medical file info (yes I have a printed copy of everything, and it's organized by date, and indexed for easy searching). The post surgery report said tumor had invaded the constrictor muscle fossa, that's why all the tumor wasn't removed in surgery. I don't remember reading that before, but since the ENT apparently did read it before my office visit, I now know why he made it a point to check the constrictors.


Mouth tenderness - we talked about it quite a bit, he looked in there real well and said he can't see any evidence of infection or inflammation, just a bunch of healthy looking pink mouth tissue, so he expects it's just residual damage from the recent radiation that hasn't healed completely yet. the tenderness isn't bad, it's only noticeable when I eat and absent between meals.

Sharp foods like potato chips are still uncomfortable to eat as are highly spiced foods. Other than that the taste continues to improve nicely. I still have instances of dry mouth, but a sip of water resolves that.

In past weeks chocolate in any form tasted horrible, that's gone now, it's back to tasting great.

Weight is staying constant at 197, right where I want it to be.

But maybe the best item to report is I met someone new, and had a very nice Valentine's dinner with her last night. Best of all, she is HPV-16 positive too. We're going hiking this afternoon.

Life is good.

Last edited by n74tg; 02-19-2014 06:43 AM.
Tony, 69, non-smoker, aerobatics pilot, bridge player/teacher, avid dancer (ballroom, latin, swing, country)

09/13 SCC, HPV 16, tonsillectomy, T2N0.
11/13 start rads, no chemo
12/13 taste gone, dry mouth,
02/14 hair slowly returning
05/14 taste the same, dry sinuses, irrigation helps.
01/15 food taste about 60% returned, dry sinuses are worse in winter.
12/20 no more sinus problems, taste pretty good