Hello everyone,

I have recently hit my 2 year mark from finishing treatment, and so far so good! However, I have recently began having a couple of new radiation side effects that I was hoping someone could help me with - my doctors don't seem too concerned.
The first issue, which started about 6 months ago, is constant fever blisters/cracking in the corners of my mouth. It's painful, drives me crazy, and makes it very difficult to stretch my jaw or open my mouth wide.
Second, I have recently been getting bad muscle spasms in my jaw that causes my jaw to feel like it is wired shut. The spasms started out pretty mild and infrequent; however, recently they have been lasting much longer (around 1 minute) and becoming more severe. They are painless and don't cause me too much discomfort; however, I worry I am going to get one at work or when I am talking to people one day, and not be able to talk to explain what is going on (during the spasms I can't open my mouth at all).

Does anyone else experience these side effects, and if so, does anyone have any advice on how I can help them?

Thank you all!
Emily


Emily - 24 years old at diagnosis
HPV-, no risk factors
T2N2b Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Left oral tongue, poorly differentiated
Hemiglossectamy, reconstruction, partial neck dissection
30 Radiation treatments, weekly chemo (cisplatin)
1/13/12 last day of treatment
Diagnosed October 2011