Tom asks me to ask all you tasters what your pain level is when swallowing? It's been five weeks since he completed radiation and chemo. Like most of you report, he can taste the first bites, but it hurts a lot to swallow. He takes a dose of Oxycodone before eating to prepare but it still hurts. I try to convince him that it's just too soon but I'm glad he's trying.

He had some Campbell's beef noodle soup tonight and could taste it. He even chewed and swallowed the bits of beef, but the texture of the noodles was too sticky and he had trouble swallowing them.

David & Riley, we loved the cheeseburger stories! Until this, Tom was Mr. Cheeseburger and really looks forward to the day he can enjoy that again. Good luck with the pizza, David. Tom tried one bite of mine tonight and could taste it, but said it burned like heck-fire going down. Might have been the sauce.

Joyce

CG to Tom dx SCC 5/06; right neck lymph nodes removed, dx right tonsil and tonsillectomy 6/06; rad and chemo started 7/06; treatment COMPLETED 9/06 33x rad; Erbitux (8x); Cisplatin (2);