Hello all 
I am hoping for some advice and feel I may have come to the right place....
My dad was diagnosed with throat cancer 3 years ago and had chemo/radiotherapy for 6 weeks. I had never seen anyone first hand with cancer before so it was a real eye opener for me - you guys are absolute soldiers for dealing with everything you have gone through. Dad lost an awful lot of weight but managed to pull through the gruelling treatment, although has never managed to regain his ability to swallow whole food.
He mostly lives on Ensure's, soups and custard (I try him with my healthy smoothies but to no avail!). He mentioned to me last night that the last couple of soups that he had tried, he had really struggled to swallow them and I wondered if anyone else had experienced a decline in the ability to swallow, even more so down the line?
Unfortunately my mum died suddenly a few months ago - I imagine the stress isn't helping him but it's making me feel even more concerned with him living alone now. I just wondered if anyone had any advice on ways to improve their swallowing or whether anyone has been through anything similar and whether there are any inevitable outcomes? I would really appreciate any help or similar stories, thank you so much
Hi Laura.
sorry to read about your Dad
He needs to phone the hospital and get looked at. The likely cause is fibrosis of all the muscles and his team will probably do a swallow test and an MRI
Is he doing his swallowing exercises? I do mine even seven years down the line.
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
Perhaps you could go with him to make sure he tells them. You know what men are like! He’s probably frightened the cancer is back, understandably. The most likely thing is stiffening of the swallow muscles due to scarring. Good luck.
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
