Three years on and checking in…..

January 2nd will always be a red letter day for me. Three years ago today, aged 63, treatment for my HPV+ t1, n1, m0 tonsillar cancer ended.  After a procession of biopsies, scans, surgery and chemoradiation I was free to begin my recovery.

I’ll be honest and say that it wasn’t overly easy, especially those first four months or so, but I was well prepared due to the support of my fantastic team and my friends in this forum.

Three years on and life is as near as dammit back to normal, although I feel the healing is still slowly continuing. There have been lumps and bumps along the road, however my eating is back to normal, my saliva deficit negligible, I am pain free and I have energy enough to go out running with friends three times a week. There is nothing I can’t do now that I could do BC.

Any issues I have are minor and mostly the legacy of the RT. For instance, I still need to do daily exercises to keep my neck supple, and my dissection scar and neck can get very itchy and tight if they are not moisturised and kept out of direct sunlight. Alchohol, hot drinks -  especially tea - overly hot food and and spicy food can cause ulcers and flare ups around my tonsil site but they’ve never come to anything and have always calmed down eventually after rinsing with saline. I am uber careful with my teeth and now have a cancer-savvy dentist who regularly checks everything out in my mouth.

I’m now down to four-monthly hospital check ups with a hotline to my surgeon, should I be worried about anything. My rule is don’t panic and leave any worries, of which I’ve had many, for a good two weeks before making contact. So far, I’ve not had to ring her.

There are many in here now who have more recently been treated than me so I’ll leave the nitty gritty of the process to them, although it doesn’t appear to have changed much.  What I will say, though, is be optimistic as this nasty, cruel disease is eminently beatable.

Wishing you all well for 2024 and well beyond,

M