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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 790
"Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts)
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"Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts)

Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 790
Hi am 11 years out of treatment and I feel like still whenever I get a bad cold it is so intense. I have gotten a few sinus infections over the years and with this last one I got a terrible cough and lost my voice for over 2 weeks! It’s almost back now but I wondered if it was so severe because of radiation. I feel like it has changed so many things. I too also have the awful hard stiff cramps neck thing too which I was reading about here. I’ve worked with massage therapists and try to do lots of stretches but it always gets so stiff and hard if indeed my do massages and the stretches regularly


Tongue Cancer T2 N0 M0 /
Total Glossectomy Due to Location of Tumor

Finished all treatments May 25 2007
Surviving!!!
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 346
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Platinum Member (300+ posts)
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Platinum Member (300+ posts)

Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 346
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I don't know; this is a good question. You're further out than I am. I got a horrid sore throat plus the general yucky this past weekend, and since I'd just worked VBS and been around a bunch of little kids, I figured it was strep. (actually, at first I thought it was allergies plus that lovely reflux due to the radiation damage, but the second day it was so bad I knew it had to be more.) We went to an urgent care clinic for a test, because I was due to work scout day camp this week (for the first time since cancer!) and I did NOT want to bring strep to camp with me. (Nor work while feeling that sick. And they did not have spare subs.) The rapid culture wasn't clear, but the doc said my throat looked bad enough that we'd go ahead and treat with antibiotics just as a precaution, to get me feeling better and uncontagious. Still not sure what it was. All the yelling and cheering at camp didn't help much, either. Boggles the mind. Is it a cold? Allergies? What? And how do we separate all the different symptoms from the treatment-induced things like reflux? And forgetting our massages and neck therapies? (guilty there, sigh.)

How's the air quality been in your area? I know for us they issued an air quality alert for the same weekend mine hit so bad ... we don't get those very often at all, and it took folks by surprise. It had to have been one of the many factors that impacted me. Would that impact you? Do you have other breathing-related issues like allergies or asthma to deal with? Oddly, after trying every other med I had as an option, I found out that using my rescue inhaler (which I've barely touched over the last couple years, and yes that means it's expired) helped get rid of some of the throat irritation ... which argued for some of it being a breathing issue made worse by the other issues. So another visit to my allergist is in order. Our bodies and immune systems change so much after cancer ... this is something to look into, if you haven't yet.


Surgery 5/31/13
Tongue lesion, right side
SCC, HPV+, poorly differentiated
T1N0 based on biopsy and scan
Selective neck dissection 8/27/13, clear nodes
12/2/13 follow-up with concerns
12/3/13 biopsy, surgery, cancer returned
1/8/14 Port installed
PEG installed
Chemo and rads
2/14/14 halfway through carboplatin/taxotere and rads
March '14, Tx done, port out w/ complications, PEG out in June
2017: probable trigeminal neuralgia
Fall 2017: HBOT
Jan 18: oral surgery
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 83
Supporting Member (50+ posts)
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Supporting Member (50+ posts)

Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 83
I too am 11 years out and notice that at least once a year I will get a bronchial infection and a cough that calls the sea lions to dinner.
I try to stay on top of all the flu shots and stay away from folks that are sick but still seem to catch it and then fight it for a month or so each time.

Hope you find relief.


Stage 4b BOT and node on right of throat. did 38 trips of TOMO PEG tube,Cysplatin,Taxotere & 5fu 1st 4th and 7th week, changed to Erbitux for the last 4 weeks. 1st PETS since end of TX..CLEAR 6mos out and 2 nodes are hot. Bilateral neck dissection on 10/31/08. Clear Scan 3/31/09 & 8/02/2010

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