Hi

I was eventually diagnosed with base of tongue cancer after months of messing around at the gp, they even fobbed me off with a diagnosis of ingrowing hairs with grape size lumps in my neck. They then said to put my mind at rest sent me for blood tests, now as we all know now a lot of head and neck cancers do not show on blood tests. Anyway I had six weeks of daily radiotherapy and six rounds of chemotherapy, I have to say it's not pleasant but given the alternative it's a no brainer,i had a feeding rig fitted to take the calorie shakes again be prepared as its not pleasant pegs are easier It will test you physically and mentally but be strong and you'll do it.

I've read a lot of people are struggling with dry mouth and loss of taste of which I suffer, my taste has returned about 30% but my dry mouth is painful. I have a thick secretion at the back of my throat like pva glue and you want to swallow it down but with no saliva it's painful and unpleasant. I started to drink iron bru and coke about 3 weeks after treatment and I swear it clears my throat and it becomes bearable, it was unpleasant to start with but I felt the benefit straight away. My restorative dentist isn't happy but just keep brushing. Dietician said the extra calories would help. If your not to keen on the drinks I mentioned try carbonated water. I think the fizzy drinks helped me, I'm not saying do it long term as there are links between unhealthy food and drinks to cancer but you could try it short term. Hope I'm not giving bad advice and wish everyone the best of luck