Melissa, I have trismus and that "tight feeling" and I find it is helped a lot by heat. I take one of those fabric neck wraps that is filled with flax seeds (or rice, or something--not really sure what it is filled with actually) that you can heat in the microwave, heat it up, and drape it over my head down next to my ear and thecorners of my jaw. Actually, when your jaw muscles tighten up, they will tighten up all the way to the top of your head--so I get heat all the way down. I keep it on for a couple of mintes and while I'm doing that I practice a. yawning or b. pretending that an egg is coming up my throat and out of my mouth (both of which a massage therapist advised me to do--they stretchmuscles on the inside back of your mouth on the inside that you don't necessarilly use with the therabite.

Last year I was also visiting a PT that did craniofascial massage--if you can find someone who knows how to do that, that is also very helpful.

Nelie

I am more than a year and 1/2 out of radiation and I am making some very slow progress when I do all this.