The halfway mark in my radiation treatment came with the first symptoms that I could definitively say were radiation side effects. The right side of my mouth is becoming more sensitive, and I wake up every morning with a sore throat. I’m also non-stop thirsty because of the reduced function in the salivary gland on the right side.
The sensitivity is because the inside of my mouth on that side has a mild radiation burn. It’s kinda like having a mild sunburn on the inside of my mouth. Same with the throat.
The outside of my neck is also slightly red, too, but there doesn’t seem to be any pain there.
Everyone keeps saying that I’m going to get tired, but the doc told me today that he’s not sure I’ll be having that problem, since I’m significantly younger than a lot of his patients and I’m relatively high-energy, any
way. He also told me that he hates telling people they’re going to get tired, because it becomes sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Admittedly, I’m tired, but I don’t feel more tired than usual – nothing that I can’t chalk up to having to get up every single flippin’ morning and brave rush hour traffic to go get irradiated. And philosophically, I refuse to blame a symptom on radiation treatment until I’m pretty much dead certain that’s the source.