Side effects of radiotherapy for cancer of the larynx

Hi Fran and welcome.

The side effects of radiotherapy hang around for a long time. I'm afraid waiting for scans post treatment is awful but he needs to trust his team who do this stuff day in day out.

We all recover at our own pace so he should try not to measure his with others. I know it's hard. You want to get well ASAP.

Make sure he is drinking lots to shift the mucous and make sure he isn't getting reflux which a lot of us get after radiotherapy. It will play havoc with his larynx.

Fingers crossed the scan results are good

Hi Fran

I’m afraid that your husband has to be patient as it does take quite a while to bounce back after radiotherapy. Radiation fatigue is the worst and I felt the same as him that I was not recovering quickly enough. It can be really frustrating when you are used to having a healthy body that recovers quite quickly normally. Your husband has to do what he can at the moment and bit by bit his stamina will return.

It also takes some time for the other side effects such as the thick mucus etc to improve. It doesn’t mean that the treatment has not worked.

He is doing well being able to eat and drink normally so that is a real plus.

Best wishes

Lyn

Hi As Dani and Lyn have sai recovery does take time , we all recover at different paces. I found drinking 2 litres minimum of water each and every day helped with the mucus. 
There an excellent article by a cancer consultant 

https://www.workingwithcancer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/After-the-treatment-finishes-then-what.pdf

This may help reassure yiu , head and neck cancer do have an excellent response to treatment it’s the waiting that can be an issue. I finished August 2018 and my results were January 2019. 

Hazel

Hi-I had the same treatment in the same period, that treatment was for Osephogus cancer but previous treatment 18 months earlier was Larynx cancer and I had my voicebox removed ( Laryngectomy), I didn't have any after treatment for that. The symptoms you are describing are quite common, I have just seen my GP as I have emphasyma which wasn't helping with the production of phlemb. After my treatment finished I was OK for a couple of weeks and then everything hit me at once and I was flat out for a couple of weeks then tiredness etc set in for another couple of weeks,I can assure your husband that he will get better and the waiting for each round of follow-up tests are concerning but better that than anything undetected, if hadn't been for the follow-ups following my Laryngectomy the next cancer would't have been detected as I had no symtoms.

Assure him my second cancer has been cured so every faith that he will be free of it as well

Take Care

Tony

Thanks for this.