Good morning all,
I hope you are all well. I feel like I am in the later stages of recovery post-treatment for stage 3 orophangeal cancer. I had 35 rounds of radiotherapy and 7/8 cycles of chemotherapy.
I have since found out that my saliva glands and taste buds were, pretty much, destroyed in the process of treatment.
Today, I will be having my 3rd treatment of acupuncture (which I am paying for myself). Besides the acupuncture, which I am hopeful will work, can anyone make any suggestions as to how to get said taste buds and saliva glands working again?
Many many thanks for your help and input, I hope you have a terrific day.
How far into post treatment are you?
My taste continued to improve up to two years and past that but was pretty hit and miss still at six months.
There are lots of minor salivary glands dotted around mouth and throat and these are more resilient. Chewing gum helps these as well as getting what parotid function you have going. Most RT plans try to spare one though that’s not the case if you have full blast RT to both sides of the neck. I had a reduced dose to one side and my parotid survived. The other one along with my submandibulars are shot forever.
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
Nothing selfish about that at all. Having gone through such an invasive treatment we deserve a decent quality of life. It’s just time. I found blowing air back up through my nose when I was chewing helped the “taste” an awful lot. Take a tiny sip of a warm drink to act as proxy saliva when you eat. It’s a much better way than chasing food down with a mouthful of water.
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
