Hi all

I just wanted to post some news for those of you who have been so kind to send messages of good will and for those who may find some useful information in my ramblings!

I finished Radiotherapy this Wednesday. I had two lots of Chemotherapy over the course of my 6 and a half weeks of Radio. The consultants told me that this treatment was going to knock me for six and in some ways be worse than the operation. I heard that and decided that the doctor was wrong. How right was I? Spot on.

For those of you who have been recently diagnosed, you will read much here about the power of a positive mental attitude. I can confirm that my saying that I was NOT going to get all the really nasty side effects really seemed to help me avoid the worst and deal with the ones I did get. I know they say that different people respond in different ways to the treatments but I am convinced that by saying so, it was so. The power of I AM is, I am learning, a very powerful thing.

I was told that my mouth would be very dry but I've got buckets of saliva sloshing about! I have experienced a sore mouth, throat etc but can honestly say that I have been able to cope and still eat without the need for a peg. I have some redness on my skin but it does not hurt.

The Chemo, I have to say, was the worst. I did feel a sickness feeling in the background for about a week and my taste buds went bonkers. I could not taste a thing. The radiotherapy helped to finish them off but things are starting to come back very, very slowly. I am told this could take months. Anyone got any stories about taste buds? It's agony not getting the taste of my fav foods!

Anyway, the absolute worst thing about the Chemo was the black mood it brought out in me. I entered what I can only describe as a deep depression (wanted to hide in bed all day, could not speak to people, feeling of intense anger in stomach, loss of appetite etc) that lasted for about 5 days. Miraculously, on day 7 of the Chemo, just as quickly as it decended, it lifted. I was so thankful for that. I could find no information online about chemo and depression (and NHS direct told me that depression was not a side effect of chemo; I was on cisplatin)but I can report that in my first week of chemo I had the depression, it lifted by the Sunday and in week 3 when I had my second and final session of Chemo I had the depression again (exact same symptoms) and again it lifted on the Sunday. Both times my Chemo session was the Monday before. Anyone else got a story about Chemo and depression?

So, for me now it's a six week wait before I am seen at the Head and Neck clinic to see the team again. I am told they will prob scan me in about 2 - 3 months. I am hoping I don't have to wait that long to find out how successful the treatment has been. Does anyone know how long it normally takes to find out how well Radio and Chemo have worked? I had SCC on floor of mouth, invasive surgery to remove the tumour, skin graft from wrist and nodes removed from left side.

Hi Mike, good to hear from you. Glad to hear you made it through the treatment. I too managed to get through the radiotherapy without too many problems - just the tiredeness and lethary and the feeling that I was in limbo - temporarily suspended from real life somehow. I did not have chemo so cannot comment on the side effects of that, but from reading other posts here it seems depression is a common problem.

I too lost all sense of taste but it started to come back slowly about 2-3 weeks after the end of treatment, the first I noticed was that I could get a faint taste of mint when cleaning my teeth and after another 10-12 days I found that things were vastly improved. It's now nearly 10 months since I finished treatment and the only thing now that tastes horrible to me is wine, red or white it just tastes like vinegar and stings like hell.

I has a scan about 8 weeks after end of treatment - I was told that this then gives them a 'picture' of how you are now and then in the future if any problems do occur they can do another scan and make a comparison.

My story has been a very positive one and I am now pretty much back to normal, there are some long term effects (slight speech impediment, and slightly dry mouth) but nothing I can't cope with.

All the best to you.

Rosie