Oct 30 makes a year

Hello everyone,
I havent been on is quite a while. It got to be too much for me. No suggestions were working for my boyfriend in his recovery as far as food. He still does not eat solid foods. Oct 30 made 1 year that he finished his treatment. has had 3 or 4 follow ups,
where the dr has poked, prodded, stuck things in and out of his mouth, sinuses, or wherever there was an available hole from the neck up I guess, and has not found a hint of anything he has been thru. Dr says everything looks and feels great. He orig had stage 2 SCC of the jaw. Tumor was destroyed. he lost 70 lbs and has not gained any back due to the fact that he is living on protein shakes for the last 8 months. had the peg removed about that time ago. has the shakes at least 3 times a day. of course anyone who has ever drank those things just as a healthy person knows that they give you gas, or irregular bowel movements, just does a number on the digestive system. he has tried all of the suggestions here for foods and methods for recreating saliva, stimulating saliva, has about 5 seconds of taste if he does try to eat something. This hasnt changed much at all since treatment stopped. He doesnt have as many sores in his mouth now, nor does he have the thrush anymore. It has been an extremely extremely slow process. Very depressing for him and myself at times. Its so amazing how much eating is a social function, communicative action and not just a sustainer of health.

i did want anyone who is interested to know that he and i are still around and he continues to try to keep his mind busy and not think of his food situation. yes he is grateful to be alive and done with all of that treatment, but he would love to eat. he constantly hates when drs try to have him take a food stimulant. He has no trouble with the desire to want to eat. he is hungry and would love to eat. he just cant really swallow it. If he swigs it down with water, he can choke easily since his swallowing mechanism is a little different now. so no chugging fluid fast anymore. he does think that when he eats, the act of your mouth creating saliva to mix with the food, the runny saliva that is, is gone and so all that is there is the thick saliva that is in charge of coating the mouth and throat when you are ill to protect it. He thinks that saliva is trying to make up for what is not there now so he always has a really bad cotton mouth, all mucousy. Makes sense since your runny saliva helps with the very beginning of digestion. You know how your food starts to disappear and you cant always do the 29 chews for it? If he tries to eat solid, it doesnt break up and start to disappear so he can swallow it a bit at a time. Imagine just chewing and it never breaks down except maybe what your teeth do to it in chopping it up.

Thats where we are about now. I still see some familiar people, Hondo, Chefdaddy, sweetblood, and a few others. Hope your lives are constantly improving and that you continue to live as healthy human beings.....cancer free.

the girlfriend
Kathy