Debra

Thank you for sharing. You are a warrior! Impressive. I am just over two years out from surgery and radiation treatment for stage 4 SCC on my tongue and one lymph node in my neck. Got 60 Gy over 30 visits to mouth and about 40 Gy to my neck. Lots of dental work now. I am in the dental chair every couple months to fix everything from a filling to root canals. But, I still have all my teeth. I try to remind myself that this is my new normal and an easy trade for the reduced risk of cancer coming back.

No swallowing issues yet but sure those days are in my future. I do miss saliva. Wow, so many things are related to this that I took for granted. Our social lives are wrapped around food much more than I thought. Really hard to eat and talk with little to no saliva. Takes forever just to clear my oral cavity enough to speak without spitting food on my friend.

I live in Huntington Beach but grew up on Wisconsin (darn near a Canadian!). Welcome to the OCF forum and glad to have you.

Stay safe and keep the faith.

Nels