Hi Gary --

Have you been scheduled for a barium swallowing evaluation? (Would probably be about 6-7 weeks post-treatment). This can help determine if your issues are due to residual inflammation, healing sores weakness of the swallowing muscles, or to the development of fibrosis or scar tissue -- if the latter it would need to be addressed as it can get worse over time. Usually the swallowing therapist will prescribe a series of exercises to do and will re-check for progress.

My husband's therapist emphasized that these concerns need to be dealt with early on and that the exercises may need to be continued indefinitely, as deterioration of swallowing ability can "creep up" on you months after treatment, due to radiation damage.

A barium swallow test is routine at most of the CCCs which deal with a lot of oral cancers; ask your doctor about this. Even our two local hospitals have swallowing therapists and do these tests, it is not limited to the largest institutions.

Gail