Support

On April 23,2009 I was diagnosed with Oral Cancer. It was very frightening. After all the scheduling and consultations it was decided that I  would have both Chemothrapy and Radiation treatments. Since that time I have had 4 radiation treatments and 1 chemotherapy treatment. The radiation treatments are not too difficult to manage but the 1 chemo treatment did not go so well. I wound up spending 2 days in the hospital.

My mouth is very sore and it is difficult to eat solid food. Can anyone offer some advice on how to cope with the suffering? I really would appreciate it.

I live alone so it is quite a challenge for me at times to go to my appointments and still continue to work full time. Any words of encouragement would be wonderful. Thank you for taking time to read this. Hope to hear from someone soon

                        GUINEA PIG LOVER

Hi.........

There are many of us out here..........I usually just go to the head and neck cancer board...........it is very active and there is alot of information there.  Guess you don't have a feeding tube...........I didn't either......and lived on Carnation Instant Breakfast with ice cream made into a shake.  Never had Chemo........just neck surgery and 35 radiation treatments.

Try going on the other board.......you'll get many more responses!

Steph.

Hi...........

  My husband battled sinus cancer last year-had radiation and chemo that caused a lot of mouth sores and pain.  His radiation oncologist's nurse recommended Ulcer Ease for his mouth.  It worked better than anything else he tried-other than pains meds and even those didn't always help a lot.  We purchased this through Walgreen's , but you can also get it over the internet.  He went through bottles of it.  And crushed ice!

  He also had a feeding tube-it was placed after he lost about 40#-I would definitely suggest a feeding tube- you need the protein and calories to heal and keep your strength up as much as possible.

 Keep reading and posting on this site- there are a lot of good people who have been there and can help you.

Kathy 

If you need help with transportation-look into the American Cancer society-their ads say they help with getting people to appointments-I don't know how well this works out- has anyone tried them?

Your oncologist should be able to give you some information about the cancer society.