dsm,
I let me give you my experience. I had a radical neck disection and 33 rad treatments. I had and still have trouble swollowing but it is getting better. My rad treatments ended feb of 04. During last summer I could not swallow. I had a total of 9 dilatations. I do not know what kind Tim is getting. My were through the mouth. I had a stricture as well. My oncologist eventually sent me to hyperberic treatments. This is where the patient breaths o2 under pressure. I went 6 days a week for 29 treatments. My stricture did go away. I still had difficulty swallowing. I went to another specialist in NY and he did what is called a FEEST test (Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallow Test). Better then the normal swallowing study. He can see on a monitor in color how the throat works during swallowing. For me, my throat on one side was not 'squeezing' at all. He told me the only thing that may help is me doing exercises. The exercise he recommended is the shaker. I was on the peg from oct 03 to feb 05. I started the shaker in dec 04. Until that time, I could only swallow thin liquids. Within 3 months, I could get all my nutrition via liquid and had the peg removed. Within another few months, I could start to swallow more types of food, although to this day I must swallow water to get anything down, but it's better than the peg. I did the exercise 3 times a day. I still do those exercises. I hope this helps and wish you well. You can find more info on the Shaker and FEEST exercise if you google it.
Jeff