My dad and his radiation treatment

My pop is 83. I am so blessed to even have him still with me. He is still a very strong man. If you were to see him u would think he was in his early 70's. Well, Im what you would call his caregiver. He has esphogeal cancer and the treatment is 33days of radiation & about 2-3 months of chemo(biweekly). I was horrified at first. ( im not going to lie, I cryed my eyes out for the first week.)Here we are now we have 11 dayz left of radiation. So that is good.(he hates radiation,Sometimes i have to argue to just get him out of bed)Right now his throat area is red from where he gets the treatment. He cant swallow! I spoke to his doctor he said give him some maalox with honey it will coat the throat. Wanted to ask anyone if it works. I tryed but doesn't seem to be working.(The redness we got ointment) If you know something better for the throat please reply back.                                                              God bless,                                                                        Suzie2009

Wow, that is an odd thing to offer.  Layne's doc gave him hydrocodone and a numbing meds that he would use to help him eat.  He didn't need it but one time, but it was nice to have on the shelf!

i was given magic mouthwash it really worked. It had lidacane and some other meds in it. Hope this helps God bless you and your dad.

I, too, had the majic mouthwash.  It tasted bad but did numb the throat so that I could swallow.  I think it was pepto-bismol mixed with lidocaine and I needed it only a few times.  The doc wrote a Rx and my pharmacist mixed it up for me.

THank you for this advice. I read ur reply and got right on it. I explained it to doc .He said magic mouthwash.(aint that funny).We are going to try tomorrow.  hopefully with good luck.                                                thanks again Suzie                                                    

hi there...

i was given carrafate to coat and oxycondone to kill the pain.  i found neither worked.  instead i took a teaspoon of active manuka honey 20 minutes before i ate and before bed at night.  i can't say it made it all better, but it did help.  however, it seems your dad is in the home stretch of treatment and that is when things get really intense...i was ready to quit with 4 days left!  but, i stuck it out and am glad i did.  the 2 weeks that followed treatment were the worst, but it got better and better, day by day.

 as far as skin irritation i used aquaphor right after treatment and before bed at night....never had a problem with redness or discomfort. 

i wish you and your dad well...tell him to hang in there...it will get better.

be well and God bless.

-Stacey

Dear Suzie, Greetings!

can you plz share the stage of cancer diagnosed? and is this treatment been given from a curative intent?

My father is 60. He was diagnosed with stage 2b mid esophagus cancer abt 2 months back. He underwent 5 weekly chemotherapy with cisplatin+5FU and 30 radiation sittings along with one sitting for Brachy Therapy (internal radiation).

and my father also experienced similar side effects of redness on outer surface and difficulty swallowing. he had to switch to semi solid diet and eventually lost 10kgs.

to relieve the pain while eating, he was prescribed xylocaine suspension (10 minutes before meals) followed by sucrafil gel (10 min after meals). it did help a bit. You may ask your doc if he thinks this may work for your father.

I hope this will be of some help. Will pray for your father's good health.

regards,
Aashima