It is after a year I finished my radiation and chemotherapy. Still I am very frustrated because ulcers on my tongue are still with me and sometimes, you never know when it occurs, when you swallow, you feel discomfort. Same applies to my voice. Even though my oncologist reassured to me that my vocal cords haven't been damaged by the treatment, for most of the time my voice is raspy and I can never shout any more. Would like someone tell me if conditions above will get better or worse or simply stay put? Thanks.

Karen,

I can't answer all of your questions, but I finished radiation on Jan. 25th. I still have trouble swallowing some things (pills)due to my throat not being healed totally yet. And both my tongue and throat are still sensitive to hot, cold and spicy.
My voice can get funny if I don't drink enough water when talking.
I don't know the answer about the ulcers on your tongue, if you don't trust your oncologist answers to these questions you might get a second opinion?

Take care and welcome to OCF.
Dinah

Things eventually heal up, but the raspy voice will only get so much better, then level off at some stage. This is because there is scar tissue on your cords now from the treatments. In my case I'm good for about 45 minutes of continuous talking, then things go south pretty fast. When I lecture, I start to lose my voice at about an hour. If I go to anyplace where I really raise my voice to be heard, like a sporting event or loud concert, the effect sets in sooner. The next day things are back to normal. This is at about 5 years out from treatments. So I would guess that you will still have more improvement ahead of you, but some issues will remain over the rest of your life.

Thanks for your response. As I am a school Assistant Principal, my voice is of the utmost concern. In class teaching, I can never do without a microphone but in daily contacts with my colleagues or in meetings, it is very irritating that I don't know the state of my voice because it varies so much. It could be clear a second ago and then went very raspy in the next second.I need to sip water throughout the day.I anticipate the situation may worsen on the dry winter days. This has posed ample stress on me. My friend who has oral cancer suggests my consulting a speech therapist. Do you think it will help?