Lemons And Salivary Glands

I've been told that when you get your radiation pill that you should eat a lot of lemons etc for a while to get the salivary gland salivating so that any parked radiation leaves the gland quickly (through salivating out, naturally) and helps to avoid "burning" the gland(so-to-speak) which may rear its ugly head as loss of taste etc. And I've read a few disconcerning posts here about MAYBE such an occurence.

Any suggestions of items that will help with this? Are a lot of lemons a good idea? Lemon juice? Sour suckers, etc? Thoughts??

Or am I imaging too great of a potential problem. I swallow Mr. Pill this Friday (5/9)

RedStar17

 

On 5/4/2008 RedStar17 wrote:

I've been told that when you get your radiation pill that you should eat a lot of lemons etc for a while to get the salivary gland salivating so that any parked radiation leaves the gland quickly (through salivating out, naturally) and helps to avoid "burning" the gland(so-to-speak) which may rear its ugly head as loss of taste etc. And I've read a few disconcerning posts here about MAYBE such an occurence.

Any suggestions of items that will help with this? Are a lot of lemons a good idea? Lemon juice? Sour suckers, etc? Thoughts??

Or am I imaging too great of a potential problem. I swallow Mr. Pill this Friday (5/9)

RedStar17

You'll be getting instructions to start sucking on sour lemon candies as soon as you swallow the pill.......follow these instructions!  Scarred up salivary glands seem to be quite common and they really don't show up until several months later.  My poor tongue was raw within a couple of days.....and despite that, I started having some moderate problems 6-8 months out which continue to nag me.  Good luck and keep us posted!   SUE

Jolly ranchers were my friend for quite a while.  Was a nice change from the lemon drops.  Good luck!

I was concerned about my husband with his RAI too. I then read about that study done where some patients used lemon drops an hour after receiving the treatment and the second group not starting the lemon until 24 hours after and they fared better supposedly than the ones who started immediately. The Thyca website, I noticed, wrote of flaws in the study. My husband asked the nuclear medicine physician when he got his pill and the Dr. said he had read the study and was familiar with it but wouldn't advocate one way or the other about when to start the lemon drops. My husband did it about 20 hours after swallowing the RAI. It hasn't even been 2 weeks yet so I cannot tell you how it is going to be. I think the doctor who delivers the dose to you can tell you all about it though and why it's a good idea to do it and when, etc. Good luck!

 Karen

On 5/5/2008 Karen321 wrote:

I was concerned about my husband with his RAI too. I then read about that study done where some patients used lemon drops an hour after receiving the treatment and the second group not starting the lemon until 24 hours after and they fared better supposedly than the ones who started immediately. The Thyca website, I noticed, wrote of flaws in the study. My husband asked the nuclear medicine physician when he got his pill and the Dr. said he had read the study and was familiar with it but wouldn't advocate one way or the other about when to start the lemon drops. My husband did it about 20 hours after swallowing the RAI. It hasn't even been 2 weeks yet so I cannot tell you how it is going to be. I think the doctor who delivers the dose to you can tell you all about it though and why it's a good idea to do it and when, etc. Good luck!

 Karen

So it's always lemon drops (not actual lemons as my Endocrinoligist suggests). I'll see where she stands. Food for thought (without iodine naturally :o) )

A wonderful doctor on yahoo newsgroups says to eat a whole lemon about an hour before treatment to get best results. Check it out. I think he said the lemon candy sucking 24 hrs after treatment is not really a good proven study. good luck. DP

 

On 5/4/2008 RedStar17 wrote:

I've been told that when you get your radiation pill that you should eat a lot of lemons etc for a while to get the salivary gland salivating so that any parked radiation leaves the gland quickly (through salivating out, naturally) and helps to avoid "burning" the gland(so-to-speak) which may rear its ugly head as loss of taste etc. And I've read a few disconcerning posts here about MAYBE such an occurence.

Any suggestions of items that will help with this? Are a lot of lemons a good idea? Lemon juice? Sour suckers, etc? Thoughts??

Or am I imaging too great of a potential problem. I swallow Mr. Pill this Friday (5/9)

RedStar17

I took my pill yesterday and right now I am eating limes with sugar on them!  With the RAI, my salivary glands swelled, my mouth was dry (still can't eat crackers without them turning into a ball in my mouth) and I lost most of my taste for things.  That part returned for me and my glands have gone down.   I ate so many sour candies throughout it all--and I was so nauseated from the 150 RAI---that I almost never want to even look at hard candy.   Please let us know how you are doing!  Tara