Her hormone levels could have changed again. Most of us had our thyroid nuked and are on Synthroid, IMRT patients less so, but they are not out of the woods either as it still receives some radiation. But age, and other factors influence your body's absorption of the drug and the levels necessary, so constant blood work (for me now annually but used to be 6 months) is necessary to make adjustments. An endocrinologist that has H&N oncology experience might be a good visit.

The pituitary gland is the "master gland" in your body, regulating all others. I was surprised to find after radiation that my testosterone levels were in the basement. I mean those puppys are pretty far away from where I was radiated... but the pituitary, while not directly in the field of radiation, got scatter radiation, and doesn't work quite right. My adrenal glands also needed adjustment by supplementation in hormone levels as well. So she likely should see someone for whom this is a specialty and get all this checked.

As to 02 treatments, I am surprised that with areas that are not healing well, they didn't put her on this earlier to stimulate the process. Many here have had good results from the treatments.


Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.