Hi My name is Christy, I am 29 and a caregiver to my dad, who had squamous cell cancer, primary in his nasal pharaynx but never found until a tumor formed inside his neck...the doctors have never said what stage, but from the medical reports I suspect he was about a stage 3. He had 8 chemo treatments and 35 radation treatments simotaniously. The treatments were last May-July, so it has been over 1 year since the last treatment. Then last September he had a radical neck dissection with only 1 lymph node being positive, and that was the lymph node that the tumor was in. It has been 1 year since that surgery and so far all the scans have been clean and cancer free. The problem he has is eating/swallowing by mouth. He had a PEG tube put in back when he first started radiation (over 1 yr ago) and has been using it since the end of radiation treatments when his secretions got to thick & his throat got to sore. He has been completely dependent on it for over 1 year, probably since last July and still cannot swallow anything. We have tried Vital Stim therapy, which helped him with gaining control of his muscles in the throat area but never opened up the esophagus. We have done numerous cookie swallows, and they have determined that he has about a 2cm stricture in his esophagus that seems to be his main problem. He has had his throat stretched 5 times, and 2 of those times it didn't even work because his esophagus was so tight that they couldn't even get the dilators down. Now they are talking about dilating through the PEG tube weekly, and my dad is not sure its a good idea. On top of that, the last time we went to the chemo dr for a check up he looked at scans and said that a few spots in the bottom right side of his lung looked a little different. He (the dr)seems confident that it is aspiration due to his non swallowing but we have to go back this friday to have another scan done so he can check to make sure. Oh and did I mention that my dad is only 59 1/2 yrs old and was never sick before this? So anyone who can remotely help or offer advice is very welcome to respond back. I know that he couldn't have made it this far only to be defeated but I feel like sometimes it is up to the patient/caregiver to seek out answers....after all, drs don't know everything! Thanks and I look forward to your response. You are welcome to respond to this post or email me directly at [email protected]