Hi, just wondering if I should be worried. I started to eat most by mouth now. I had my last radiation treatmnt 4 weeks ago. Is it normal for your neck to be sore? Like my muscles are hurting from not being used? Same with my throat? Since eating, it feels sore.mthanks

Did you receive any physical therapy or have you been shown any neck exercises or even swallowing exercises for that matter? Pain will come and may go. Some have to do exercises daily for life.

Thanks for the response. No, no physical therapy and no exercises. I have been doingmy my swallowing exercises. Once I started the excersises and eating, thats when I started feeling it. I also quit all my pain meds. I just take aleve. Thank

ps. Ihad a full radical neck disection also.

You are at a good point to start some neck therapy.

Gotcha. I see my doctor next monday, I will get him to get me started. Thanks

I'm a year post and have a tightness in my neck where the rads hit the nodes. I do neck stretching several times a day to keep the area from tensing up too much. It does work very well for me.

It is just a bending to the side of the neck and looking upward. Just a few times make it loosen up. It does not reduce the size of the underlying scarring running along the neck but sure does stop the tightening up.

I notice I get build up under chin and around adams apple. Like turkey neck, etc. Is this normal? Would this make things be sore and some pain? Thank you.

If the "build up" is a looseness of skin than it is as you describe "turkey neck". I did not have this but I do not recollect folks mentioning it hurts or is painful. Far more comments about it being a bit unsightly. Good luck

The turkey neck is from edema buildup from the lymphatic system damage or, I suppose, it could happen from surgery. It resolves but takes a while and lymphatic drain massage will help it get the big bulge quickly but not resolve it completely, in my case.

Don, is the "tightness" from a surgical scars! Does it feel like your sternocleidomastoid muscle doing a slow contraction? The contraction part is a good thing to indicate more stretching to get some blood flowing. Eventually, the muscles that do the slow contracting and alternating with instant cramps that creat big, painful knots are the muscles that atrophied first for me. Mine kept getting smaller till they turned to cords or strands with no elasticity left. With 18 months of hard work, I have been able to "revive" sections of the muscle.

Thanks everyone. I called my doctor, nurse said thats all normal. Im sore from using muscles from eating and talking. I did help my son clean our pool filter, thought I was gonna fall over. Had to sit down 2 times. My heart was really racing. Is this all normal too. Last week I quit all pain meds. I am going through major withdrawal. Nurse said the weakness, dizzy, etc is from withdrawl. Does that sound right? Thanks