Hi Rose

I am so sorry to hear that. It's good to hear that your are trying new things and making progress though.

Are you still able to taste things? When he was first came out of surgery, he said could taste everything he tried but after radiation, even though it's been 3 months now, he still says that most of the things he's tried don't have much taste.

He drank water immediately after surgery and throughout radiation so he hasn't had any trouble with liquids but I think that even pudding and applesauce are kind of hard for him right now. I believe oatmeal was even harder for him as he only tried that once.

Hopefully he will be able to get implants or at least a set of bottom dentures. I don't know what his options are yet concerning teeth but hopefully that will make things much easier for him.

Right now, I think we may have to stick to pureed foods and soups for a while.

I will tell him about your microwave and butter technique. It would be great for him to be able to eat donuts!

I think that his speech therapist is having him do these chewing motions to make his muscles stronger with the idea that it will also help his speech. Yes, I read about the replacement sounds as well and was wondering about that but I may just be ahead of myself. It's just that since he can't really "chew" I don't think he's actually doing those exercises as much as he may need to.. If that makes sense.

Thanks so much for your reply and best wishes to you as well!