David, (Sorry Michelle, to hijack the thread for a moment)

I can understand why a general RO (and their nurses) would give info regarding taste buds, saliva, etc. that is not accurate as far as statistics is concerned, but for dedicated H & N docs and there crew to do that bewilders me. After years of seeing only H & N pts., they should know that these functions don't return that quickly....and that each person is very individual in their recovery timelines. I would think a better answer would be "while we see faster and slower recoveries, the average is blah, blah." Surely they have records to show to give them a good idea about these things???

Deb