Head and Neck Cancer

So I know I’ve been missing in action for a bit, but it’s time for a work update. I recently had the privilege to dive into a new area of speech pathology that I never thought I’d have the chance to experience, much less enjoy. …Head and Neck Cancer.

Our hospital has its own cancer center and through a series of events, we learned that their head and neck cancer patients were not receiving routine dysphagia/speech intervention. I ended up being asked to give a presentation to three oncologists and two radiation oncologists about speech pathology services for head and neck cancer patients. And, long story short, I know see all of our head and neck cancer referrals.

At first, I thought it would be a depressing group of patients to serve, but I’ve actually come to like it…a lot! I think the most thrilling part is problem solving for these people. They’ve been told they have cancer and that they’ll need very invasive treatment to cure it. What they haven’t been told is that the side effects of that treatment may be worse than the actual treatment itself.

Could you imagine living a life where you have no saliva, where everything tastes like drywall dust, where you’re not hungry, where your food gets stuck in your throat and won’t go down, and where you neck is literally as hard as a rock?!? But, you’re alive!

My very first head and neck cancer patient (nasopharyngeal cancer) has been very challenging. At first, I had no clue what I was doing. I read some books, did a lot of research, and then just had to go for it. Surprisingly, my patient has made some pretty significant progress and I couldn’t be more thrilled. She went to being totally dependent of her feeding tube to tolerating liquids to eating soft solids and swallowing whole pills! My speech pathology friends out there will know what a big deal this is!

I can’t wait to see where this new venture takes me. If you work with head and neck cancer patients and have any good resources to share, please pass them my way!