Welcome to OCF, Brian! Its always great having a fellow survivor join our online family. You will find TONS of info by reading thru our posts on a wide variety of oral cancer (OC) subjects. Theres also page after page on the main OCF site that has anything and everything about OC (link is at the end of this post).
One thing you will notice thats repeated often is "everyone's different". What one patient struggles with another patient barely notices. When it comes to recovery, we're all pretty impatient, we can never get well as fast as we think we should. At 2 months post rads, you have a long way to go before you are fully recovered. Most of us have struggled just like you with issues of dry mouth, loss of taste, difficulty swallowing, lack of stamina and the many other problems that happen after going thru rads. It takes the body 2 years to be considered fully recovered. At about 6-10 months post rads, most OC patients notice a few ongoing problems they still have. After the first year post rads, improvements with dry mouth and sense of taste are more gradual. Those 2 things are what takes the longest to heal. Even around the 2 year post rads mark Ive seen a few patients reporting improvements in their sense of taste and dry mouth.
The best thing you can do to help with your recovery is to continue top focus on your intake. Every single day take in at the very least 2500 calories and 48-64 oz of water. If you can take in more daily calories and water until you hit your 2 year post rads mark it can only help make your recovery easier. Check with your doc if its ok to add some high protein whey powder to your diet. The whey powder boosts the protein intake which helps to speed healing. Being 2 months post rads, its not easy to take in the 2500 calories and 480-64 oz of water. At this point its all about getting the most calories per swallow. Go for full fat everything, milkshakes, smoothies, etc. Im including a list of easy to eat foods. These items have a smoother texture, less spices and are easier to eat especially for patients who are struggling with mouth sores and/or with a very sensitive mouth, their swallowing ability and have a fleeting sense of taste.
Hang in there! The rest is easy compared to what you have already been thru.
List of Easy to Eat FoodsMain OCF Site, UnderstandingPS.... GREAT signature, thank you!!!
