I need to know, at what point does the dry mouth begin to return to normal. I have 8 rts remainining. It is all over on the 21st. I know that radiation is the gift that keeps on giving, but I need to know what is ahead. How long after treatment will the mouth feel better.

Ray,
you need to put the details of your adventure in the signature section at the bottom. If you are getting IMRT, then your salivary function could take as long as 18 months for a full recovery (at least, what is going to recover). The stringy mucositus will recover much faster, for many of us, it just stopped suddenly about a month or so post Tx. For me the mouth sores were the slowest to heal, some taking mouths.

As far as feeling better. You will start turning the corner about 3 weeks post Tx and your initial progress will be incredibly slow - typically measured in 3 week increments to notice the slightest changes. Figure on one month of recovery for every week of treatment. At 2 or so months I was able to start eating solid (soft) food.

Keeping your calories and water intake (2-3 liters/day) up will aid your recovery a lot. Be on the lookout for opportunistic infections like thrush. Go to the doctor or ER immediately whenever you have a fever that exceeds 100.5 degrees. You'll have to manage constipation as well since it can be a major problem because of the pain meds.

Congrats on making it to your 25th - let's hope the machine doesn't break down and you can finish on time to get started with the healing. Don't expect any changes at first and it may well even get worse for a time.

Be patient.

Ray,

Ditto what Gary says about telling us about your Dx and Tx. Add it once to your signature line and it's there for every question or comment.

I am 6 months post Tx and my dry mouth is probably a 7 on a scale of 10 being normal. It wasn't until the end of month 4 that it got to the point that I actually liked eating again but everyone can recover differently. Don't expect recovery to come in leaps and bounds because it won't. BTW my docs tell me I am doing super, much better than most. Sure makes me wonder though. I guess what I'm trying to say is that by the time they are finished with their barbaric Tx, our bodies have been pushed to the limit and we shouldn't expect our body to rebound quickly. I was told by my nutrition person to boost my cals post Tx (as soon as I could) to 3000 cals a day and get as much protein as possible. It was a struggle but I forced myself so maybe that played a role, I don't know.