Rita:

I can help you with the radiation part of this. But I need to ask you a few questions. Has your doctor suggested radiation or is it something they will decide after your surgery? Have you seen any oncologists? Have your doctors suggested you have a PEG or a port placed at this time?

Im not sure about the PEG tube for now since my oral cancer wasnt requiring a major surgery like yours. Im glad you have found others here who are familiar with your type of surgery. A PEG tube is sometimes a necessary evil to maintain nutrition while going thru treatment. If you cant take meds, most can be put down the tube. The peg tube isnt the worst thing I have had to endure thruout the treatments, its been a life saver for me.

If you need radiation, read all the info there is on here. Everybody goes thru this differently. For many, they must carry a water bottle with them for years due to dry mouth that lingers after treatments. That didnt happen for me, I was free from carrying a water bottle with me at around 7 months post treatment. My saliva isnt perfect, but its not too bad and I still have lots of time that it can get even better.

As far as taste goes, my taste has returned to about 75% with most things tasting right. I still have a few things that are a little off. Radiation can cause sores in your mouth, but also the chemo cisplatin can too. This will make it very difficult to eat. So between the lack of saliva, mouth sores, and lack of taste there is a reason for the peg tube.

After radiation and chemo you will go thru a period where your mouth and throat has very thick mucous. Thankfully this time goes quickly and only lasts a few weeks starting from near the end of radiation treatments. After that comes the dry mouth phase which lasts longer. Its all part of your body healing.

I know all of this sounds terrible, and it wasnt fun. But believe me, it can be done if its necessary. I think that the scariest part of cancer treatment is the unknown. Its great that you have found OCF to get guidance thru this. It was a huge help to me. Honestly, I dont know how I would have gotten thru this without OCF. Try not to worry so much, take one step at a time, you can do this.