Hello everyone, this is my 1st post. I was diagnosed with tonsil cancer (T4N1 P16 positive) in Oct 25 and completed treatment in Dec 25. I was floored by the treatment, never expecting the side effects to be so brutal. I had chemo-radiotherapy followed by surgical pelvic clearance and permanent colostomy when I was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in 2023 but nothing could have prepared me for the side effects of the tonsil cancer treatment.
Just before Christmas last year I was hospitalised for a week with severe neutropenia and sepsis, this was a few days after completing my 30 radiotherapy treatment sessions. Now 11 weeks on, my tongue is still ulcerated, my mouth painfully dry and swallowing very difficult. I can only manage a little soft diet so I get my calories from ensure supplemented with high protein milky shakes & I'm inexplicably tired all the time. On the plus side I can hear again, my voice is slowly coming back and the burns on my neck have healed so I'm making progress but I really expected to be feeling a lot better by now, I thought I'd be able to eat again, that I'd be sleeping properly and getting back to work soon. I realise everyone's recovery is different and everyone responds to treatment differently but I'd be very grateful to know if anyone who reads this has had a similar experience and if the time line of my recovery so far is normal.
I’m also experiencing a lot of hair loss; about 3 weeks into the treatment, I lost most of the hair from a very defined area at the back of my head because of the direction of the radiotherapy but now I’m steadily losing my remaining hair to the point where I now need a wig; I don’t know if anyone else has had this experience & if they have did their hair grow back? Thank you so very much in advance for reading this post.
