Hi, In a response to WZ, I mentioned that John has been complaining of a sore throat again, along with painful swelling in the side of the neck, in the area where the modified radical neck dissection was done on Feb.6th. There also seems to be a recurrence of the phlegm proglem he had months ago, although not as severe as it was. He has been going back to his old favorite of chicken noodle soup (with very thin noodles)...and he also says that the food sometimes is getting stuck or caught in his throat. At the time when John had the neck dissection done, the surgeon also performed an Esophageal dilation. Does the fact that he has the sore throat and food sometimes getting caught in his throat sound like an after-effect or problem from the Esophageal dilation? Could it be scar tissue in his throat from the radiation (which ended in Nov. 2002) and from the neck wound healing, etc.? If anyone has any experience with this - please let me know. Thanks. I'm trying not to get too worked up about this, but I'm starting to get a bit panicky!