Tonsil Cancer

In December 2007 my husband noticed an enlarged lymph node on his neck.  It was taken out, biopsied and determined that it was cancerous.  In January he had his tonsils removed which is where the cancer originated.  Twenty-seven lymph nodes were moved and one more cancerous one found. He is now is his third week of radiation (which is being done as a precaution, because he cancer was Stage 1) which will last for 6 weeks.  I am really concerned about his nutrition.  He is drinking at leaslt 2 Ensure a day along with eating.  He is having trouble with the saliva glands.  Anything with soups, gravy, etc., seem to help immensely.  I just hope we can find enough different things to feed him so he doesn't have to have a feeding tube.

my boyfriend has stage IV head and neck cancer with an unknown primary.  he just had his 11th rad - preceded by induction chemo.  he is thin to begin with so he had the PEG inserted in between the chemo and radiation.  he has just started to use it.  he can't afford to lose much weight....one of the things that he has been able to eat when nothing else worked is protien shakes made in the blender.  we have gotten very creative!  basically they are a combination of milk, soy protien powder, carnation instant breakfast and various additives- banana, frozen blueberrys, strawberries, a scoop of ice cream.  when his calorie intake is getting too low i have added a few teaspoons of canola oil...a trick i learned from his nutritionist.  we have a recipe for an orange breeze that is delicious...though right now his taste has change a lot...but i always get to lick the spoon!   you can also add protien powder to a lot of things for an "extra boost". 

Hi, Sula.

I'm 5 1/2 months out of treatment for tonsillar cancer, stage IVa. I had chemo and radiation, so I have an idea where your husband is at.

The smoothies/protein shakes are a good idea. I lived on those for quite a while. One thing that works well for me is steamed vegetables and fish ( tilapia works very well) done in those microwave steamer bags. The food retains enough moisture and the texture is good for easy swalowing.

He will probably have trouble swallowing pretty soon, so make sure he gets enough fluid too, I had problems with dehydration. Gatorade works well, I used either mango or orange flavored, but see what works for him.

For saliva, ask the doctor for a prescription for Salagen (pilocarpine) to stimulate production.

My nnutritionist's recipe for protein shakes:

1 1/2 cups "fortified milk" ( 1/2 gal whole milk + 2 cups powdered milk)

1 envelope Carnation Instant Breakfast ( I use vanilla)

3 scoops or so vanilla ice cream

Dove dark chocolate syrup to taste

done up in a blender...I still have these for breakfast, even though I can eat normal foods now, they are that good.

Best wishes to you and your husband, I hope his treatments go well and are successful.

Mike

My husband had his tonsil cancer diagnosed in mid February and had surgery to remove enlarged lymph nodes in his neck, then began cetuximab on Feb 20 and daily radiation.  His is stage4a, even though his tonsils had been removed as a child - as they say, his is a very small cancer being treated very aggressively.  He is better than 1/2 way through treatment and does not have a feeding tube. We found that homemade smoothies - i throw in everything I can that is not acidic: whole mile or half and half,banana, an apple, blueberries, a touch of honey, yogurt or ice cream, protein powder or powdered milk - no oj and he can tolerate elbow macaroni, and I scramble up lots of eggbeaters with cream or half and half and a scoop of protein powder and/or glutomine (thanks to Julie, I went out and found the glutamine to protect his muscle tissue).   Also, I sautee up soft asian style noodles with tofu in  real butter.  He was really concerned about cholesterol, but his radiologist and everyone else said to forget about any other considerations for now and just focus on keeping his caloric content high and his weight stable.   His biggest problem wa excrutiating tongue pain which it turned out was Thrush - not simple radiation burns and as soon as the Diflucan kicked in, he is now, lucky him, able to focus more on the throat pain. That pain had been overshadowed by the pain from the thrush.   Last night he sent me out for egg drop soup and steamed potstickers.  tried veggie tofu, but it was in a sauce that was just too spicey.  I force him to drink Boost plus, it's like dealing with giving a child medecine, sometimes, but he undestands and he drinks lots of ice tea.  Now he also adds heavy cream and sugar to his morning coffee.   Oh! and finally, once again now that the thrush is receding, he's eating vanilla ice cream. Tried mac and cheese, but the salt nearly killed his tongue.    Hope this helps - hang in there and my best thoughts are with the two of you.  Gwen

Mike, thanks for the tip on Tilapia - I just emptied all the fish out of my freezer and gave to my daughter thinking I wouldn't be using it for a while! Bob loves veggies, so I will try the steamed veggies and some soft fish tonight. 

Hi Gulf girl,

High Chol was my hubbies only heath issue when he got sick, and he'd been taking medication for cholestorol for at least 10 yrs. I worried about all the fat in his diet, too during treatment.

Never the less he ate high fat foods to keep the his weight on.

 

After treatment, and today, a year later, his cholestrol is lower that it has ever been and he's off medication - has been for the past 6 mo or longer.

Isn't that ironic?

Something else that my hubbie has incorporated into his daily diet is cold pressed flax seed oil, which he puts in his soomthie everyday. Also, a fish oil supplement.

So happy for your your husband and you.  My DI has always taken lots of supplements, flax oil and fish oil among them, so I do add one or the other to his food. I confess, I take only the basic vitamins & calcium supplements when I remember.  The great irony is that my'numbers' are great, and he got cancer.  But he blames it on his smoking, which he fought fo 40 years.  

Sounds like he's doing well w/o the PEG, but don't be afraid to go for it IF NEEDED. It literally saved my life during treatments. I really couldn't have drank/eaten all the wonderful things I'm reading about-couldn't get past the waxy taste everything had for me. So I used the tube exclusively and drank only water. The canned food, delivered directly to my door, was very high in cholesteral; but as someone said-don't worry about that right now! Even afterwords; when I was still not eating due to taste and saliva issues and was losing too much weight-I was encouraged to drink Blizzards everyday if that was all I could tolerate! Enough time later to get back on track, which I am (some, because the only really good taste I have now is sweet & chocolate) . My cholesteral spiked during treatments & PEG feeding, but is back down now, 11 mos out of treatments. I'm trying to eat healthier, but lots of other stuff tastes like paste. Ick. Gayle 

My husband is just past the half way mark of 6 weeks of radiation and cetuximab.  We've found that elbow macaroni, scrambled eggs made with half and half (scrambled in butter) with some whey protein powder or L-glutamine powder thrown in for good measure; also, sauteed (in butter) noodles with tofu - no seasoning, as thanks to his developing thrush, everything stings his tongue.  The pain from the thrush far overshadowed the throat pain.  Now that he's taking diflucan, the pain from the thrush is down and he'd dealing with the rest of it.  The other day I pureed some steamed broccoli with half and half & used it as a sauce on his elbow macaroni.  The joke has become, "What's for dinner?  Elbow macaroni and scrambled egges, or scrambled eggs and elbow macaroni..."  Someone has suggested tilapia.  He drinksBoost Plus and I make smoothies in the morning with everything I can think of thrown into it.  His concern is cholesterol and all the normal health issues, but his doctors have all said that keeping his calorie count and protein up is far more important for the next few weeks than anything else.  So now he adds cream and sugar to his morning coffee.  He's cut way back on the coffee, as it adds to the dry mouth.  He's been fortunate that he only has to be treated on the right side, so it seems that while his doctor says his mouth is dry, his left side salivary glands and taste buds seem to be functioning.   When the mucous thing finally kicked in, and I woudn't sleep for fear he'd choke in his sleep ( such sounds!) his oncologist recommended Neil Med - a nose and nasal rinse, like a netti pot, but it comes with it's own squeeze bottle.  He used it for the first time last night, and it is a God send!  Oh, also, low salt creamed soups seem to be tolerable - I've just started blending our own in a Vitamixer.  He can't tolerate salt or sweet, though vanilla ice cream now goes down well.  Yesterday we got him a strawberry shake at Sonic on the way home from the doctor's visit, and that worked out well.  He insisted on trying a plain hamburger - big mistake;(. Hope this helps.  Prayers to you and your husband.   Gwen

Don't be afraid to get a feeding tube.  It saved me.  I still lost 40 lbs during radiation, chemo and brachytherapy.  I was taking in over 2,000 cal. a day and still losing weight.  7 months from treatment and everything is fine and have put back on the weight since things are now tasting better.  Hang in there.