Welcome to OCF, Charly!

We have all been where you currently are. Its not easy to see any significant amount of progress when thinking about your recovery on a day by day basis. Most patients are surprised to hear it takes oral cancer (OC) patients 2 full years for a complete recovery after finishing radiation treatments. Being 3 months post rads, you have most of your recovery ahead of where you currently are. You should have had some slight improvements in your sense of taste and saliva than haw things were when you first finished rads. Recovery can be a very frustrating time. We all can not ever get well as quickly as we think we should. Most patients will be in pretty decent shape around the time they're 8-12 months post rads. The second year of recovery they notice fewer major changes but they do still have some improvements here and there.

Keep up a higher intake of calories during your recovery and it will help you to rebuild your body after fighting cancer and the results of treatment for it. During rads its advised patients would take in at the very least 2500 calories and 48-64 oz of water daily. Ask your doc about adding high protein whey powder to your diet to help boost your protein intake. Protein is what helps the body to heal. Most OC patients/survivors that are in their recovery phase still need extra calories. One good thing with taking in a higher amount of calories on a daily basis is most of us do not gain weight for quite a while. It took me over 3 years after my 3rd round of OC before I began to gain any of the significant weight I had lost. Everybodys different and Im probably not the best example since I had some major complications that slowed down my recovery. The thousands of OC patients Ive seen over the years have all done much better when comparing their recovery several months later to their 3 month post rads.

Hang in there!!! You have been thru alot already. It takes time but you will get there and in time you will notice your saliva and sense of taste have both improved significantly.

PS... Heres a link from our main OCF site, where you can read page after page of info about OC.


Main OCF Site, Understanding Oral Cancer