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Long term swallowing issues

ac
ac CSN Member Posts: 90 Member
edited 8:58AM in Head and Neck Cancer #1

Hi,

Before I begin, I just want to offer some encouragement and hope to anyone recently diagnosed. It was my second cancer, the first being unrelated colorectal cancer.

I began my NPC journey in 2011. I underwent both radiation and chemotherapy at MSKCC (highly recommended). But have been NED since.

Recently, I have started to experience difficulty swallowing (especially so with dry grainy foods) likely due to the long term side effects of radiation. It's 2026 today, just over 15 years past diagnosis.

Also, wanted to add that I had problems swallowing an oval shaped tablet (always found them more problematic than capsules) and this had been happening a few times already. Additional gulps of water did nothing for me. It was just stuck like a clogged pipe. That said, I strangely remembered the lyrics of a song I heard from "Mary Poppins" growing up, "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down". Funnily, I remembered the lyrics wrong and thought it was honey not sugar, and that was very helpful when followed by a couple more gulps of water!

If you have any long term effects of swallowing issues, could you please share your story and how you coped with it? I'm sure the community will be most grateful.

Wishing you all the best and stay positive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVDgTbGZEw4
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