Speach and swallow.

Hi, Rossi5000, well done on finishing your treatment, you are still in the early days of your recovery, and things do take a while to start getting back to normal. I was totally relient on my RIG for about ten weeks, than slowly started to eat soft food, which did taste awful at first, but slowly I could eat more things and more of it. We are all differant in the way we recover, some take longer than others, , give your body time to recover, you will get there. All the best.

Regards Ray.

Hi Rossi5000, a great reply by Ray, i would say from now on you should start to see improvements and by 6 months you should see a big improvement so you are about halfway through the recovery period and may i say, doing very well so keep up the good work, all the best, take care .

                                                                                                       Chris 

Hiya Rossi, 

I think its quite normal to have problems at 3 months.

I am 3.5 months along, and only started eating any solids a few weeks ago,  

Most food is completely tasteless and i have a lisp when i speak apparently so...quite a few similarities with you

My neck also throbs, by the site of one of the tumours

Its still early days for us basically

Trev

As for the speach, I had and to a point still do as my top lip has shrunk and because of a full neck disection my bottom lip dose nothing either, after 5 years I can usualy make myself understud but have problems if tense or tired, I had to learn what it took to talk (we do it without thinking) but have managed. Now the point I would tell people that it might be difficult for me to make myself understod and still do at times as I know when it slures, my big problem is with P and B as they use allot of lip yours would be diferent I would thing, just tell people and don't hide it then you might find they look at it in a different way and not think you are drunk ;)

Hi Rossi5000

Some great replies.  I would also add that recovery doesn't necessarily follow a steady upward curve.  Sometimes you feel you're making progress and then you might hit a little blip.  Be patient with yourself and take each day at a time.

All the best.

Linda x

Than you all for your responses. I think the hardest thing is being self disciplined enough to do the daily exercises. I absolutely hate the 2 Cal feed. I get terrible heartburn, even if I slow the rate way down. I have managed to make myself understood to strangers over the phone...even Alexa understands me. I was starting to eat solids after my mammoth operation it was the Radiotherapy that damaged my epiglottis. It was a bit like having taken a wicket in cricket, only to be overturned by the 3rd Umpire. Thank you all again.

Have you tried feeding very slowly overnight with a pump? It was the only way I could do it, leaving the day free to play with swallowing things knowing if I failed it didn’t matter. I got used to sleeping sitting up and with the sound of the pump I had a nasogastric tube. It might be easier with a PEG? 

Hi Rossi I didn’t have surgery but had 35 radiotherapy and 2 chemo I also had a n g feeding tube fir 6 weeks then ensures and slowly introduced food. As everyone says it’s time you can’t rush and like Linda says some days 2 forward and one back. It’s a variable thing to all of us no set pattern but baby steps you can’t rush anything. I can now drink herbal tea coffee sift drinks alcohol not for me but I rarely drink before. But know a few who enjoy s pint. 
hope this helps the exercise s are important. I did my swallow ones in the car or while stood at the sink in fact when I had a spare min. My swallow is now good 

Hazel 

Once again .Many Thanks. I see many people have done blogs. I am going g to have a bash at one tomorrow. Surprisingly, there have been laughs, along side the tears, which surprised me.

Hi Rossi. I think most of us  blogged our way out of insanity. It was the only thing we could control at the time and yes, you will find a laugh here and there. That’s healthy. Blog on and share it with us.