Post Radiation Thrush

I am 6 days out from head and neck radiation, and have thrush. I am taking diflucan (2nd course); is there anything else I can do at home to alleviate this, and are there any nutritional supplements I can take? I am drinking about 3-4 cans of nutrin a day. This formula is loaded with sugar, and cannot be helping with the thrush, but I need to maintain my weight, so I'll be on it for a while. My Dr. gave me little info, besides to take the diflucan. Thanks...Teresa

Hi, i too have thrush. We all get it. Sorry to hear your Dr. didn't give you enough info. I take a mouthwash for mucositis which is a combo of koolaid(for taste), nylstat and xylocaine. It's prepared by the hosptial where I was treated - Princess Margaret in Toronto. It works very well to numb my mouth so I can eat. It also treats the thrush. I've heard that yogurt with acidopholous works well to reduce thrush - try ACTIVA yogurt. *Frequent gargling with Baking soada and water (one teaspoon of Basking Soda with 8 ounces of water - breaks up the mucous) The thrush takes a long time to go away - be patient. Where were you treated? What kind of cancer did you have. how long was your treatment? How are you doing? I had 4 weeks of radciation - twice a day - very agressive. I feel very good. Not tired now at all. I am 6 weeks out of treament and feel I am on my way to a good recovery. Recovering from the treatment is harder than any part of the treatment. I am of course hoping that they got killed the tumour but I won't know until the scan is repeated in Feb. But I feel bvery positive because I havae recovering well and my Dr. is also verbally encouraging and positive. Do you have a feeding tube or are you able to take food by mouth? I am also on Nurtin - 4 cans a day by tube and I can now do about 1000 calories a day by mouth - eggs, French Toast, ground meat, mashed potatoes - soft foods. Write back - best wishes.

Hi--I am now 6 months post TX. I  had stage 2 tonsil cancer, had 7 weeks radiation, 3 doses of cisplatin and a feeding tube. I did very well during treatment, continuing to eat solid food the entire time and I never got mouth sores. They removed my feeding tube 2 weeks after finishing treatment. I didn't get the thrush until after treatment, which I finally resolved by using a grapefruit seed extract gargle, which was okayed by my doctor. That took care of it. I didn't want to keep taking diflucan indefinately.