Five Weeks Post Treatment - Everything just continues to improve.

Taste is beginning to come back nicely. I estimate I have 25% of my taste back. I can taste everything, it just doesn't last throughout the meal. Spicy foods do irritate the mouth/throat, not enough mind you to stop eating. A sip of milk does a good job of calming the spicy.

Mucositis is gone I think. The tongue is where it was worst and that's gone now.

Rope mucous - is still here, but it's not too bad. I notice it mostly in the morning after waking up. Still use the warm salty baking soda gargle to soften it up so I can get it out.

Weight is returning nicely since I eat regular food now. I've switched back to 2% milk from whole milk to start watching the calories and fat a little more. I'd like to maintain an average weight of 200, which is a very good weight for me.

Dry mouth is very infrequent, almost a non-event.

Hair loss on back of neck - someone at bridge said they thought it's beginning to come back.

Other than that metallic taste in mouth about 1/3 of the time I have no adverse symptoms.

Tony

Excellent report, Tony! Thanks for keeping the wonderful reports coming. It is nice to read about folks who do escape many of the side effects and it gives hope they may get off easier as well.

Don

Nice to hear you got thru it with little complication! I'm hoping to follow in your tracks in not too long.

Six Weeks Post Treatment - Another week of improvement. It will again be a busy day tomorrow, so this is written the night before.

Taste - pretty much returned. I can taste everything and now all throughout the meal. This is wonderful as eating is again enjoyable. I haven't tried that cheeseburger yet, but will likely do so next week.

Mucositis - is gone, at least for now. Will it ever return, who knows, but for now it's not a concern.

Rope mucous - I don't know if that's what I have. The symptom is my uvula and area going up into nasal cavity feels like it's coated in glue and allowed to dry every morning when I get up. A salt water baking soda gargle and a shot of nasal saline up each nostril and it starts to clear. Horrible, nasty looking snot starts to release and exit via hack and spit. In 30 minutes or so it's pretty much all out for the day. If it persists a Mucinex tablet gets used. This problem has never blocked my sinuses making breathing through my nose a problem. Breathing has alays been normal.

Weight - is stable at 200; I'm having to watch my intake to keep weight off. So I concentrate on what I do eat being healthy, veggies, protein, avoid too many sweets and empty carbs.

Dry mouth - half dozen times a day, a sip of water takes care of it. I keep a gatorade bottle of water on my desk and in my car, always available.

Saliva production - is back to normal. I know that kinda contradicts my dry mouth remark, but I have no problem with dry mouth while eating.

Hair loss - no improvement over last week. What I did notice is the neck skin adjacent to where tonsil was (and radiation was at max) is baby smooth and all whiskers gone. I never have to shave that area anymore.

Guys, I'm way luckier than I deserve for recovery to be going this well. I only hope it could be this way for everyone.

Going dancing on Saturday, see you all next week.

Tony

WOW! Great news.

Fantastic update. You are the new "best" case for getting through this whole process. Now, you just need to bottle it and you will be a billionaire. Then you can be like Bill Gates and spend it all on cancer research!

And I would gladly do just that - after buying a new aerobatics airplane of course. On second thought it wouldn't even have to be aerobatic, a used Cessna might be enough, just something to "slip the surly bonds of earth and dance the skies on laughter silvered wings" in.

Seven Weeks Post Treatment - Okay, one more week complete.

Head neck CT - had first post treatment follow up with ENT and a head neck CT before that. ENT looked down the throat, at the surgery site (left tonsil), but what impressed me most was he did a full oral cancer screening. And believe me I know now how one should look. He did the gauze around the tongue thing, and felt everything inside my mouth as well as lymph nodes both sides of neck. He made me gag at least 10 different times. He commented to his intern that throat constrictor muscles 9 and 10 work real well. Of course I asked him what those were, and he said, the ones that are making you gag.


Edit - I was rereading some of my medical file info (yes I have a printed copy of everything, and it's organized by date, and indexed for easy searching). The post surgery report said tumor had invaded the constrictor muscle fossa, that's why all the tumor wasn't removed in surgery. I don't remember reading that before, but since the ENT apparently did read it before my office visit, I now know why he made it a point to check the constrictors.


Mouth tenderness - we talked about it quite a bit, he looked in there real well and said he can't see any evidence of infection or inflammation, just a bunch of healthy looking pink mouth tissue, so he expects it's just residual damage from the recent radiation that hasn't healed completely yet. the tenderness isn't bad, it's only noticeable when I eat and absent between meals.

Sharp foods like potato chips are still uncomfortable to eat as are highly spiced foods. Other than that the taste continues to improve nicely. I still have instances of dry mouth, but a sip of water resolves that.

In past weeks chocolate in any form tasted horrible, that's gone now, it's back to tasting great.

Weight is staying constant at 197, right where I want it to be.

But maybe the best item to report is I met someone new, and had a very nice Valentine's dinner with her last night. Best of all, she is HPV-16 positive too. We're going hiking this afternoon.

Life is good.

Eight Weeks Post Treatment - Another ho-hum week.

The big changes week to week have virtually stopped. Weight remains stabile in desired range. Hair on back of neck continues to grow, but very slowly.

Mouth soreness is still here - most noticeable when eating anything sharp (potato chips) or spicy. Mouth is also very sensitive to heat. I have to let things cool some before eating them. The mouth only hurts when eating. Every time I see a doctor I ask, and they all say it's normal.

Most things I can taste now, though a few things still don't taste as good as I remember. But, I'm seeing signs of improvment, so that's a positive.

Mouth dryness hasn't changed. I need a glass or bottle of water nearby most of the time because I never know when my mouth will just go dry. When it happens, it's really noticeable. Chewing a piece of Trident gum helps keep the mouth wet.

Since my improvements are changing so slowly I think I will go to a two week update schedule in the future.

Ten Weeks Post Treatment - Healing continues, but that tender mouth and tender tonsil area continues. Mouth is still sensitive to hot or spicy foods. I had a margarita with mexican food last night and both the drink and food stung throughout the meal. Once eating is over the tenderness goes away. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow for a full set of dental x-rays to see what/if I have any treatment induced teeth damage. I need to be more disciplined in my use of fluoride trays.

That and a pretty good case of dry mouth are my only remaining symptom, the new girlfriend says the hair on back of my neck is coming back in, will likely be back to normal in 30 days or so.

The weight is remaining constant at 193 plus or minus 1 pound. I almost never eat lunch anymore as a way to maintain weight and brekfast and supper are small but nutritious. Energy level is good, but I don't yet have the endurance I had prior to surgery and treatment. That will come back in time.

It seems like improvement has slowed, but maybe that's because the bulk of healing has already occured.

take care
Tony

Edit: Dentist decided that the last thing my mouth needed was more radiation, so she has put x-rays off for awhile. So we just did a teeth cleaning and polish.