Today is my two year anniversary from my last radiation treatment. Just want to share with my fellow OC friends. I had a recurrence of floor of mouth cancer after being cancer free for 5 years. This time it was stage IV. Found it in October of 2018. I had two rounds of Cisplatin and 35 radiation treatments.
The recovery has been painstakingly slow, but I am grateful to be where I am compared to a year ago. I'm just, in the past 6 months, getting off of a diet consisting of mostly liquids. My dry mouth has been severe making eating any solids dangerously difficult. Very High Calorie (530) Boost has been my savior. Although it is expensive, imo, and my sugar levels were very high on my last lab results. I am taking pilocarpine and using xylimelts at night. I also took 40 HBO dives last Summer. It was amazingly beneficial to me. My swallowing has been improving ever since. I am hoping and praying it will help ward off the insidious effects of radiation down the road.

I still experience sore gums even though my dental check ups are good. Another side effect I have is zero tolerance for anything even slightly tangy, which I have found a lot of food is tangy to my radiated mouth. I have never been a cook at all, but with my special dietary needs, I have been spending more time in the kitchen trying to figure out what I can eat. It's been thrilling being able to eat again, albeit very limited. Oddly, one of the things I can eat are tostados with the crunchy shell, but I can't dissolve soft tortillas. You'd think it would be the opposite.

One thing I have noticed is that I have become more comfortable with how weird food feels in my mouth. My lack of saliva does not enable me to make a bolus with food so that I can swallow it. Food kind of goes all over my mouth and I have to us water to get it down after every bite. My tongue is a bit shorter so that is a challenge. I'm always very aware of choking, so it takes forever for me to chew food. I still supplement with Boost. I don't want to lose any more weight. I dropped 20 lbs.

My energy has also improved immensely over the last 6 months. Thank goodness. I didn't realize how low it's been until it started coming back. I no longer have lethargy most of the day. I have a 6 month old Lab and she keeps me very active and I keep up with her.

I do believe that our bodies keep healing every day. My surgeon told me that wherever I'm at in my recovery one year post treatment is pretty much where I'll stay. Thank goodness he was wrong. I am way better. I am so thankful for where I'm at because I know how much worse I could be. Strength to all of you out there. I hope and pray you find blessings in your journey. I know I have.

Thank you for letting me share my small milestone. It's nice having OC friends that understand.