I’m about 11 months post treatment now and I’m starting to think I’m doing pretty good! I don’t have a lot of saliva still and I hate how dry and awful my mouth is in the morning, but I can eat pretty good actually, I just need a lot of gravies and sauces to help with swallowing. I mostly stay with ground meats, pastas, mashed potatoes, gravies, well done veggies, soggy cereal, soups - easier stuff to eat. Every couple of months I seem to notice a bit of an improvement, and I do now believe that it will still get better for another year or so. And - I actually ate pizza tonight!!! I ate it with 3/4 of a jar of marinara sauce, but I didn’t think I’d ever eat pizza again so I was thrilled.

For toothbrushing it was only about a month ago that I went back to regular toothpaste, prior to that it was too ‘spicy’ for me. I found Biotene toothpaste to be okay though (at $11 a tube compared to $1 for the usual kind!) I do still use high fluoride toothpaste 3x a week, plus fluoride gel once a week. I also use Biotene mouthwash in the middle of the night when I get up to go to the washroom.

Anyway, just wanted to wish you well, and like others let you know that it does get better for quite some time after treatment ends.

Take care

Hi there,

Thanks for the positive post. I'm just at the begining. I'll find out on 1st July what date my treatment starts (I'm on a clinical trial so need extra tests completed this week before the randomisation happens on Monday)

It's great to hear you've eaten pizza. Definately something to look forward to once my treatment is done.