My doctor said I should not expect to get taste buds back. I did not get the impression he was just giving me worst case scenario. Anyway, if it helps I do the zinc tabs. 50mg for about 10 days three times a day. Since then I am taking about two tabs a day, sometimes together sometimes not. My rads were conentrated toward the fron of my mouth. MAy be that saved the tastebuds in the back.

Can I ask? I have a pain arsenal of vicadins, percocet,morphine and tramadol. None of them work by themselves. My doctor said there was nothing else to give me for pain. He told me to experiment with combinations of what I have and not to exceed 4 grams of actetiphetamine(SP).
Why doesn't this sound like right advice to me? I have become tolerant to these medications while I have severe pain in my mouth, from my gums,my jaw from gritting my teeth, my neck and throat down to my left shoulder. Some pain is constant. I take one morphine 30mg and 2 vicadin 7.5 for breif control of 3-4 hours. Taking less does not carry control over. I have to start again with both morphine and vicodin.
Does any of this sound right. I feel like I am being left on my own to medicate. According to doctor next step is pain management people. I am so tired of pain after 4 months. Any pain sometimes.

They make pain management sound so far out there I am afraid to talk to them, like I should be able to grin and bear it. On the other hand I am told my ENT is one of the best on the planet.
I broke down and made an appointment with an ortho surgeon.... I think that is right to look at my mouth to see what he thinks about my healing issues?

I wonder who should I see? The cancer center in Richmond I would like to see can't get me in until end of December.
It is probably all in my head but I think everything is getting worse.

This might explain me:
My father's esophageal cancer went undiagnosed until 6 weeks before he died. For years his doctors called him a hypochondriac. It made him crazy. When MCV hospital doctors requested his medical records from the military they were shocked by seeing his cancer so advanced and clear in the x-rays.
I am very sensitive to this whole experience. It is one thing to pass away trying to fight something, but to have nothing to fight and people thinking you are weird for complaining would be sensless. It was sensless. I don't want sensless, but feel like I am the discoverer my cancer, even when dentists saw it for weeks, the discoverer of something wrong after the radiation began.... I have felt this ulcer pain for weeks while my complaints were associated to surgery and radiation.
I am losng trust and can't get anything to sync up..

Sorry.....

One of the residents at the hospital called today. He was being honest but I was asking about Hyperbaric chambers and he did not seem to think they were a quarantee for ridding me of this problem. I appreciate the honesty. I can't see any way right now that this situation will improve. The highest concentration of radiation went into this area. Looking back I remember the dentist raising an eyebrow when reading the rad dosage for front of mouth. He thought it was high. Think I'll go away for awhile to deal with this. I thought by now I would be helping people here and I am just getting more and more caught up in my situation.
Thanks to all for the conversation.