Am happy to report that Teresa's followup with her radiologist today went very well. He said her mouth looked great! Also told her that she was treated "very aggressively" and provided some comfort to ease her fears of a recurrence (but did mention the 2 year mark). He did say that they killed the saliva gland on the left side where her cancer was but hold out hope that the right gland will improve. She is still having alot of mucous and dry mouth... mucinex helps some and MD ok'ed her to continue with it. Her taste is beginning to return and she is eating pretty much whatever she wants. She had gained a pound since last visit (thank God she didn't lose weight during the process... she is a tiny little thing anyway). She enjoyed home grown tomatoes and cucumbers yesterday! Not yet ready for coffee as she "doesn't want to ruin" her enjoyment of it.
While she feels like her tongue is "huge" and speech is very slurred, to others it looks completely normal and she has only very slight slur of certain words. The neck stiffness is irritating to her and excercising it doesn't make much difference.
Overall, we are totally blessed that she had a wonderful team and came through all of this as well as anyone could have I think. Thank you all for your support, words of wisdom, and willingness to share your experience, strength and hope.
Love ya all!
Dodie
