Hello i am a 57 year old female called Roisin and i was diagnosed in August last year with a small tumour on the right hand side of my neck,i was told it was small and needed only 7 weeks of radiation,i knew nothing about throat cancer and it really took me by suprise that it was what i had although i was lucky it wasnt much worse because i first went to my gp with the problems in my throat in june 2017 when i was sent for a camera test down my throat,i was told back then that i had a small benign tumour at base of my throat but they said that wasnt causing my symptoms but my docs didnt bother following through with it and tbh it wasnt a great annoyance at that stage .
I was due to flie to New York on 1st July last year and the week before we were going i took a sore ear which i went to the docs with to get the all clear for flying ,it was a locum and she looked insind my ear and down my throant and asked had i never been sent to ent,she was very suprised i hant after reading the notes and said i had to go asap and got me emergency consultant for 2 days timr,he knew as soon as he looked down my throat i had a problem and said i needed to come in for general anesthitc so he could see what was going on,i explained i was going away with my daughter to see family in NY that Friday and he said o jus go ahead and enjoy yourself and i will sort you out when u come back,so i did,great time lol then back to hos where got general done and he looked around and took biopsy,had to wait 3 weeks then they told me i had a tumour on my right hand side which extremely luckly had not went into my lymph nodes and spread,he said i truly was blessed that it was not in the nodes as it was in a area that generally did spread quickly but mine hadnt but he was still going to give me radiation on the nodes as well as the tumour just to be on safe side,i got 7 weeks with Matilda my mask (whom i have hanging on back garden fence in the hope that my daughter and friends who smoke mite just get afraid and give them up,hasnt worked ,wee birds nesting in it lol),anyway i am now 12 weeks post treartment and very slowly getting myself togather,can manage quite a lot of food now though most meat things stll a nono,what i am plagued with this last week is dry mouth,had had it slightly but not too bad but from Tuesday this week its been awful and my lips are nearly bleeding although i put lip balm on frequently,could anyone give me some tips on how to help it please,i would be very grateful xx
