For swallowing I made a huge effort to swallow throughout treatment, because a friend’s mom who had radiation to her throat 9 years ago never did get back to swallowing, and she’s been on a feeding tube for 9 years now. I had about a 1 week period where I ate only through the feeding tube because swallowing was too painful, but even then I still kept sipping water. I finished chemo radiation almost 3 mos ago now. Swallowing is very effortful, and I can only manage very soft foods, or soft foods with lots of gravies, but I’m happy to be able to eat real food. From my experience I would encourage trying to keep swallowing.

Mouth/tongue cancer dx Feb 2018.
Surgery Apr 2018, partial glossectomy, tongue reconstruction (radial forearm flap donor site), neck dissection.
Tumour 2.5 cm, 0.8 cm deep.
Histologic grade G3 Poorly differentiated.
3 of 25 lymph nodes involved max size 0.6 cm.
pT2pN2b (stage 4a)
Chemo Radiation June / July 2018. Completed 35 rads, 2 of the 3 chemos.