I am familiar with the Fentanyl patch from after surgery pain - still have a bunch left over. I am however reluctant to start as these patches were involved in my pain medication overdose while admitted previously. Long story short, I was given too many narcotics one night, could not be woken, had an AMET team rushed in to revive me via that scary strong reversing drug Narcan. Anyone who has been "narcanned" will know what I mean, not pretty.

The 3 month theory makes sense altho none of the Drs etc I see have ever mentioned NOT to massage out the stiffness or swelling. Speaking of PT, a fellow patient revealed what worked for her in this regard was Myofascial Therapy where I guess they really stretched out the affected neck tissue.

In other news I did manage to get taped up yesterday so we shall see if this Kinesio thing works. Best I can describe is on the main site (left jaw/cheek) I have a spiders web pattern of tape. Then, on both left and right sides from jawline down to beneath collar bone several strips running up/down. The bottom end of these are then connected by several strips running horizontally. Lastly there are a few strips running up/down from the back of my neck (hairline) to shoulder blade, left side only.

So far it is not uncomfortable just odd looking. Will advise in a few days how it has fared.

Ok, back to the early morning golf on tv, a pleasant benefit of not sleeping so well!

End of treatment. I researched this a bit before I committed to having massage. I even looked into whether there were increases in recurrences if you had lymphatic massage. So I waited got a clear scan the did what I had to to get rid of the swelling.

Tks Cheryl. Can you expand plse on what you did to get rid of the swelling - was it just massage and how did you cope with it prior to the three month mark?

Thanks for the info Cheryl. I have an appointment on Monday at Johns Hopkins with my ENT/Surgeon. I'll cruise by PT and see if Marcia and I can get a quick refresher on it.

"T"

Btw no verdict on the Kinesio: tape was on for 3 days and while I did not get any better I also did not get worse (which seems to be the norm), so its hard to tell.

The last two weeks have been tough. Each morning seems worse than the last. I am not sure anything can move fluid thru the neck dissection scar area which, after radiation, is rock hard. My speech and eating/swallowing have been adversely affected also. I fear another feeding tube is on the horizon. Everything is just seizing up, regardless of stretches and massages. Compression masks/chin and cheek bandaging offer visual improvement for a few hrs only; no relief from the pain. Actually I wonder if the swelling can be made worse on the inside from the compression on the outside? Certainly my tongue and throat seem to suffer more when I wear the nightly mask/strap.

Apologies, I am done with this topic....so fed up with this damn side effect. Time will take care of it. Eventually.

Shortconnery,

I am at UH Siedmen Cancer Centor, Mentor campus. IMO they don't know anything either. I have pain just abouve where they removed a node in my neck. It is numb on the skin but hurts when you push it. I told them it feels beter when you rub and/or strech it.

Some doc's blame radiation, other surgry, So I ask the doc's what to do, they say "strech and rub it"

Shortconnery, I think it takes more time, if you just had surgery, treatment this year. Hopefully, things will get better.

Fluid cannot move through the scar tissue - new pathways must be built around it. Keep up with the massage - it takes quite a while (I went weekly for 6 months and did my own massage daily.) make sure your massage therapist has been trained in lymphatic massage. Rome was NoT built in a day and healing takes time patience!