My husband is now about 5-1/2 months out from the end of radiation treatment. Mouth sores are gone, swelling in neck from MRND/radiation is gone (returns occasionally), dry mouth is not too bad these days. He is eating about any kind of moist foods and often without a lot of gravy, sauce, etc.

However, swallowing issues remain. He says that during end of radiation, he could drink liquids but he gulped. Then that improved so that he could drink continuously with no problem. However, with solids, he often feels like the food is getting stuck on its way down. It seems to get worse as he eats more of his meal - and he often gives up when he is near the end. Sometimes it doesn't happen, but it generally does, and gets worse with amount of eating he does in a session.

I'm assuming all kinds of things can cause this - lack of saliva, constriction of the esophagus, weak muscles?, the BOT surgery he had. Does this happen to most H&N patients? Does it go away on its own with time? He has never been offered a swallowing analysis - should he ask for one?

(It doesn't seem like the BOT surgery probably caused it because he had no problem with swallowing after he recovered from surgery and before radiation. It happened post radiation.)

Connie