Lorie, as a tonsil cancer survivor, maybe I can share my experience here. Although I didn't have surgery, the chemo/radiation treatment was so intensive that swallowing was extremely painful and I lost my voice for over a month. My healing process was also a relatively slow one since I'm diabetic.I still have ulcers on my tongue.When I was hospitalized in my latter half of treatment, nutrition was a big problem and my oncologist frowned every time when he checked my eating and drinking record. He warned me that if I continued not taking enough food or water, he would get me a feeding tube. I feared the idea and told myself no matter how much pain there was, I had to tolerate it and get myself enough nutrition. It was around christmas time and my target was to leave the hospital on new year eve to have family union, which to everyone's surprise, I could make it.Before meals, I took all kinds of pain medicine and used gargle to numb my mouth first. I waited for about 15 minutes for the medicine to take effect. Then I swallowed the food (it was plain,thin congee only)with tears in my eyes. Every meal was a great hurdle but I kept on telling myself that I had to surpass it. When I was eating, I would send my relatives away so as not to frighten them. In the afternoon,I took a cup of icecream. Not too bad to swallow but raised my blood sugar level and I had to get my blood test 4 times a day.The level was so high that the nurse would yell at me asking me what I had eaten that could raise my blood sugar level so high. I said just penadol syrup and ice cream. My oncologist told me to throw away the diabetic concern at that moment since my only mission was to get nutrition. Yes, drinking water was also a nightmare. It was a knife cutting feeling but I reminded myself all the time that if I didn't drink or eat, I could not win this battle.So to look back,I think that it was strong will and caregivers' support that helped me go through all these hardships. One more thing, it is by trial and error that I could increase my list of food that I could take. There may be frequent setbacks when something that could be eaten yesterday could not be taken today but vice versa. Where there is a will, there is a way. This is my motto in life. Never give up.

Karen stage 4 tonsil cancer diagnosed in 9/01.