Hi Nelie, Jerry is 10 weeks out from radiation now. He was actually able to eat food up through the end of week 4 of radiation and then switched to shakes and diced peaches. He is still doing that at 10 weeks out. Tonight he is going to try non-pureed soup so we'll see how that goes. He cites 3 things that he feels together are causing him to be unable to eat real food: 1) the non-healing spot that will be treated with hyperbaric oxygen starting next week, 2) the swelling from the neck dissection ; he is putting off the lymphatic neck massage until he is done with the hyperbaric oxygen treatment, and 3) dry mouth - his seems to vary, ranging from mild to moderate. These three, along with shoulder pain/weakness from the neck dissection seem to be his big issues at this point. He was seeing a PT right after surgery re: the shoulder/neck pain weakness and daily continues to do the exercises he learned. He never used the pain patch I've seen other people write about, but he did use acupunture along with 2 tsp Roxicet or Oxycodon? 4 times a day (and still does). He is also pretty fatigued.

His surgeon keeps telling him that healing from this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.

I'm very encouraged in hearing others talk about having pretty normal lives eventually.

It will get better - hang in there.

Connie