I will let you all know how I make out with doc as to treatment and will take your thoughts into acct, looks like I will have more time to keep up to speed on forum as we staying near treatment facility due to four hr drive each way. No changes to how I feel yet although I notice my tonsil on node side is reddish, will keep in touch thanks to all for the information and experience. Ken

Best of luck... It will be hard but it is doable. take care.

Go for it, DooLittle! Come to this site and soak up some of the great usable information and visit with some of the fantastic folks here on the forum. When you can, put some info in your "signature" area (found when you click "my stuff" at the top of your screen) so we can get a bit of info on your condition at a glance.
In the meantime, Welcome! (but sorry you had to seek this place out!) ;-)

Good luck with everything.

Thanks guys one down 34 to go they decided to do a biopsy on my tonsil so got pain on the swallowing right from the get go hopefully see the doc tommorow to discuss options have a good night

Ken, thinking of you. It's a tough treatment but you can get through it!

Hi Ken, from one Canuck to another, we have some pretty amazing medical staff. I know that the Cross Cancer here has been awesome for me, so I'm sure you are in good hands.

Good afternoon I just received my fifth treatment have not had any side effects yet but during treatment today I had a sensation in the back of my neck when the treatment activated in the back right position, I was wondering if anyone has had similar experience with radiation felt kind of numbing and still have a bit of pressure in the same spot it was weird how it started just as machine kicked in I asked technician about it and she said was prob just me being tense machine could not cause it, thanks in advance for any input...ken

That's true. Maybe it was the pressure of lying down, mask shoulder straps, and mentally concentrating on the area. You may not feel any side effects until two weeks, but some do sooner. Good luck with the rest.

So eight treatments in and now I know how much I liked the taste of food lost the light flavours first cheese gravy, I'm really gonna miss that over the next few months otherwise all going as planned not too much discomfort yet, hope all are doing as well...ken

On a lighter note.. When I mentioned to my family that everything tasted like wet wallpaper my nephew suggested considering HIS mothers cooking that might be an improvement.....
Seriously, it will take a while and it will be in stages how taste comes back. To this day I cannot stand anything really hot.

One of the first tastes that came back for me was coffee and I love coffee, so that was great. I am 3 1/2 years out of treatment and there are still a lot of things that I can't really taste or that taste "off" to me. I used to love dark chocolate, and now that tastes terrible. It's just our "new normal".

Same here. Coffee was the first drinks I could taste following radiation. I think it's the bitterness for me. Later on, I could taste beer, broccoli rabe, chocolate....It's amazing you eat all your life, and then after treatment you have to rediscover what foods taste like.

Good luck Ken. We are all in your corner!

Funny, coffee was the first back for me. Chocolate never did taste the same but I still went for whole milk lattes with one shot of chocolate just because.

Second for me was pasta sauce so I bought bottled sauce and pasta and lived on 3 a day meals of that with a milk chaser. I am just now able to multiple gulp down an entire glass of anything. It is pure joy. I progressed to 4 cheese lasagna with sausage until my Otolaryngologist said, "Remember when I told you you needed to gain wt to make it short term? And I told you to eat everything you could find to add calories so your body wouldn't give up?" I answered, "Yes". He then said, "Well you can certainly cut back to regular food and portion size now." I asked, "Are you calling me FAT?" He replied, "No...but you are HUGE with that 50 lbs you put on!"

Ed

Luckily coffee and the one beer I tried are still ok, i am sure they are leaving soon though lol was able to taste green and red pepper in a stir fry last night just not as strong as normal hoping things stay at this level although prepared for worse.
I've put on ten pounds knowing this was coming hope to loose thirty otherwise gonna have to go on a diet.
I hope my loving wife doesn't take advantage of this and stop adding the tlc to our dinner table I'm sure the kids will let me know though....ken

For me if it is fresh and in it's natural state it tastes best. POP I still can't drink and most canned or processed foods are horrible! They have a chemical taste. But give me a freshly made pasta with veggies and sauce and all tastes normal!

Thirteen treatments in starting to get the sore throat now taste mostly gone still got a couple buds working it seems. I find the more flavourful foods are still hinting what it used to be like, I found out iced cappicino at Timmy's go well plus at 250 calories help the intake may have to go unleaded though, caffeine free, the pasta definitely is easier on the throat lots of extra sauce helps, have a good week starting to look like spring here....ken

Glad you checked in. You are about half way finished. Keep up the great work with eating, drinking and swallowing! It really will make a huge difference in how you feel.

Hang in there!

The 2nd week is usually when the radiation effects start being felt. The good thing is the 13 visits are in the history books, done with! I used to keep a wall calendar and X out each day I completed, which for some reason kept me going to keep score with this battle, and each day closer to the prize. Good luck this week.

Jed's up an one foot in front of the other - soon enough it will be over.

Six days to go, all was well till I started getting breakthrough pain mon, doc upped meds to steroids better by tues night, feel great today like si off duck dynasty happy happy happy, using the water pick with club-soda works good to keep clean had grilled chicken fettuccini Alfredo for lunch and could actually taste a bit,other then that mostly protein shakes. Suns coming out in Victoria this week plan to get some golf lessons in before I have to go home, thanks to everyone for there comments and postings related to their issues it definitely makes this journey a lot easier... Ken

Awesome!!!!! So glad you are doing well.