My Mother just had her follow up appointment with her IMRT Dr. and Chemo Dr. She is 4 weeks out from her last treatment. They did not want to scope her yet since they felt the tissue was still too irritated. I feel like I have so many ununanswered questions so I thought I would post them here since her docs did not address them enough (in my opinion).

1)She is having trouble swallowing. She chokes on most soft foods and can not get them down. The pain is minimal (on 50 mgs of Fentanyl). But she has a really hard time getting soft food down so she is still relying on the peg. I don't understand why she is having trouble swallowing. Is the throat swollen, is the tumor still there, is this normal effects of 37 IMRT's w/ chemo...or what else can it be?

2) Also her blood pressure is still very low. The docs say that isn't uncommon with chemo. But should it still be so low this far out?

3)She mentioned to her dr that she is considering an opinion from MD Anderson for surgery on the nodes regardless of what the 2 month scan says. Her chemo dr. gave her the impression that this is unnecessary (in the event of a good scan). She swears she will never have chemo again. In the event of a reoccurence or the cancer still being there she will not do chemo again. She had a brutal experience with her 3 chemo agents and only made it through 2 of the 4 weeks due to her toxicity levels and severe reaction. Because of this I feel that we should persue the idea of a neck dissection to be on the safe side.

Your thoughts and experiences are appreciated!!
Tami