Post Treatment Swelling???

My Father completed chemo (Taxol and Cisplatin) and 35 treatments of IMRT four weeks ago and has recurrent swelling and sharp pains on the right side of his neck. Has anyone had similar side effects? He thinks that it may be coming back and I want to be supportive but not naive. I would greatly appreciate any feed back!!

On 6/9/2008 DeaconMax768 wrote:

My Father completed chemo (Taxol and Cisplatin) and 35 treatments of IMRT four weeks ago and has recurrent swelling and sharp pains on the right side of his neck. Has anyone had similar side effects? He thinks that it may be coming back and I want to be supportive but not naive. I would greatly appreciate any feed back!!

Yes....I've been on the phone all morning with the docs and pharmacist. My husband finished up treatment for Base Of Tongue Cancer 4 weeks ago. He is still on the 72 hour morphine patch and vicodin every 3 hrs for the pain. His latest challenge is he can't sleep because he stops breathing. I've found articles linking the pain meds to what is called central sleep apnea. I have the same question as you do, should he still be in this much pain four weeks post treatment? We don't even broach the subject that the pain could be tied to the return of cancer. My husbands tongue is still pretty gruesome to look at so I can only imagine what his throat looks like. On the flip side, my husband has his voice back and he does not need to use the feeding tube so maybe the pain is at the tail-end of recovery. Sorry I can not be of more help other than to say I understand.

Assure your father that it's very common for the neck to swell and for there to be strange feelings on the side of the neck of the affected lymph node. I finished 39 IMRT and cisplatin Feb 14 and weeks after that was awakening each morning to a flabby neck and sometimes swelling 1 or 2 inches under my left LN along with discomfort in the area. Each morning is different and this morning for the first time the swelling under my chin was less flabby and more hard like. Swelling is usually gone by noon.

My radiologist has told me that this is normal draining of the lymph system. For me, other than this morning, it's been less a problem in recent weeks.

 And to put this in context, my March CT scan showed everything looking good and the LN reduced greatly from pre-treatment size. AND the April CT scan showed LN shrinkage, compared to March, of 26%.

I hope my experience gives your father comfort that it's probably nothing to worry about. But, he should have his radiologist take a look ASAP.

Wish your father the best of luck!                                                    Steve

Hello, My dad has also had throat cancer. 6 weeks of every day radiation and 1X/week for about 6 weeks fo Chemo.

He had a neck desection of the left side of his neck removing all the lymph nodes there and salivary glands.  HE WAS VERY SWOLLEN  under his chin and  around the surgery side of the neck.  it took about 2 months maybe for that to completely go away.  So fear not..should be fine!

 

I'm 2 years post.  I still have swelling and aches, and pains that come and go. At first I was worried about it, now I just live with it.

There's going to be a lot or odd swelling and pain once he starts eating again.  I ate a TALL burger at 3 months post and thought I was going to die.  The day after was killer.  My ENT told me to take it easy.

BTW, I was on serious pain meds for 6 months.

Tom

I'm about 8 months post treatment, cisplatin and radiation, for tonsil cancer. I still have intermittent swelling in my neck and chin area, sometimes major, sometimes not. There is also some intermittent jaw pain as well. At 4 weeks, I wouldnt be too concerned, I was told it takes about 8 weeks for the cancer to completely die after treatment ends.

However, any concerns about swelling and pain should be mentioned to your oncologist. Pain management has definitely been shown to speed recovery. The swelling is usually caused by damage to the lymphatic system from the radiation theray. My doc told me I would have the swelling for a couple of years while my body learned to cope with the fluid drainage. The condition is called lymphedema.

Best wishes to you and your father

Mike

4 weeks is not a long time out of treatment. His body will be healing and changing for a much longer time. It took me months, up to a year for some things, and here at 2+years out I still have changes going on that cause all sorts of issues. None that I can't handle though. He will probably always have that fear that it is coming back. Every headache, sore throat, earache, itch or twitch causes you to worry. He'll get used to that.

Good Luck!

Joe 

Thank you so much for sharing this information. I am three weeks past radiation and my right radial neck dissection is still feeling odd with intermittent tongue pain and neck swelling. I thought the same thing, that something was wrong. Glad to see posts from folks who have been through it. One Love