cancer nutrition after treatment

On Jan 03, 2012 5:24 AM lardog04 wrote:

On Jan 03, 2012 12:13 AM wildog wrote:

On Nov 11, 2010 4:46 PM lardog04 wrote:

Sorry to hear about you father's throat cancer.
For me I was diagnosed with Stage IV tonsil cancer with lymph node involvement last December 2009. I had six weeks of chemo and six weeks of radiation with an additional three more weeks of chemo 24 hours a day for five days a week.

Biotene rinse does help and so does the brushing of teeth and tongue.  Biotene tooth paste is okay bt I like Kroger sensitive enamel guard.  Do not buy the mint as that also causes throat inflamation early on. Was brushing seven to ten times a day to get ride of pasty taste etc.  I had the PEG tube as I was completely unable to swallow anything. My wife fed me Carnation Instant Breakfast VHC 600 calorie cans she purchased from a medical supplier. Was 190 before treatment but lost fourty pounds.

After about two months I was able to get down top ramen soup. For me the warmth felt good and anything that was room temperature or less was extremely hard to swallow. Top ramen soup became my treat for the next four to six weeks. Fianally was able to get other real soft type bland soups down.  I use to love spicy foods but so far after six months after radiation anything the least spicy set my throat on fire. I was unable to even eat yellow mustard very sparingly until a few weeks ago.

I have an extremely hard time eating dry foods and especially hamburgers or biscuits. 

Taste buds are mostly lost and or have changed dramatically. Really down't like the taste of certian foods like steak, chocolate etc. Chicken taste best to me or closest to what it originally tasted like.  I am not able to eat chciken breast as it is too dry and now the easiest piece is the thigh nto swallow.  I am constantly asking if food taste okay to other people. This is where it is paramount to be understanding as I get a hard time from wife whenever I ask if the food is okay. I guess she takes if personal.

I have asked my doctors etc about taste and sensitivity of throat the burning from spicy foods but have received no real solid answers.  Would like to know what other people experience also.  After reading the post many people have different reactions to food and taste. I really dopn't look forward to eating because it is so hard to swallow, food doesn't have any real taste and the fact that I constantly have to drink while eating to help swallowing. I can only drink sodas if they are room temperature but that is slowly changing and found it best to pour the soda in a glass to get ride of a lot of the carbonation.

After six months,  very little of the salivary glands have come back and very little of the taste buds. I would also like to hear other people experience here also.

It is kind of a trial and error to see what is the easiest food to swallow and Yes other people's history helps everyone to get ideas.

Again best of luck and post again.  

 

      Aloha lardog, The thing that saved my saliva glands and taste buds was I gargled and swallowed drinkable Aloe Vera during and after my radiation treatments and they didn't do Chemo on me. Your teeth must have been in great shape because mine had to many fillings and they pulled them out because the radiation and what ever it does to your teeth. The surgeon told me she tried to talk me out of letting them pull them but I told her that I was so out there on drugs that I don't even remember het telling me that otherwise I would have kept my teeth and hoped for the best. Tell me, do you have to shave your whole face and neck because I don't have to shave below my jaw since nothing grows there anymore and the same for the back of my neck where a barber would have to trim the area. Aloha,wildog

Wildog

Thanks for the followup notice, questions and answers. As far as gargling with Aloe wish I would have tried it I was only told about putting Aloe on my neck exterior during the radiation which did help the burning and redness. Other current radiation patients should take notice and should try using Aloe for internal and external use.

My teeth are or were in great shape. I never had any cavities or any dental problems before and I just went to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned about two weeks ago and he said I bet you wish the rest of your body was in as in great of shape as your teeth.

As far as shaving, I had a moustache and the radiation doctor asked me if I ever grew a beard.  I told him I usually have a beard most of the winter time except for this year.  He said you might have a few very small bald spots below your jaw line where the radiation will be concentrated. My personal situations was that I had a very thick beard with no bald spots.  Now about 20 months after radiation basically there is a line from the bottom of my ears to my mouth intersection,  all the facial hair below that lines is mostly gone and everything above that line still grows pretty thick. I have maybe 100 hairs.  I have to shave every day as I had more hair when I was thirteen, and I would be embarassed if I didn't shave now.

As far as my hair line I have always had the rear of my hair tapered cut by my wife but now she has to cut my hair long with almost no taper in the rear so it hides the bald spots from the radiation about three inches above my collar line. She has said a very small amount of hair is growing today but not nearly enough to hide the bald area.

Again thanks for the update and I would be interested to hear or discuss anything more you have to offer. 

I have been going to a hospital support group that a friend told me about and I wish I would have known this earlier but I was told by this therapist nurse of 21 years expierence that your should try to drink water with lemon or lime as especially lemon stimulates the the saliva glands to help them regenerate. I still have trouble eating hamburger and most breads without some sort of dressing, butter etc to halp them slide down. 

I still wake up usually two times a night with extreme dry mouth having to rinse with biotene or another rinse called  Oasis to get more than an hour of sleep that water allows me.

Taste buds are better after almost 20 months and for the last four months I have been able to eat spicy foods with little or no burning sensation.

Other than that I am glad to be alive and waiting for my next scan in the end of February.  My last scan the doctor found two suspecious spots on my upper right lung and said he wanted to wait four months to retest. 

     Aloha Lardog, First off let me congratulate you for having dog in your name since where I come from it's an honor to have it. When I told my Radiation doctor I was going to use the drinkable Aloe Vera he told me I was the first patient he had to use it and wanted to know how it worked. Well even the techs were interested and from what I understane they and the docotr advise all patients under going radiation to that area to use the aloe vera. I have a little dryness of my mouth but not that bad and it has actually a little worse now than for the first year and a half after the radiation treatment but I can say I don't have to drink much water for dryness unless I have been talking for a while or have my mouth open for a period of time. I am a little more sensative to spicy foods but not enough to stop me from eating them. I just had to many fillings and that is probably the worse thing about the whole situation because having no teeth and the dentures not working is a nightmare when it comes to eating but there is nothing they can do about it. At first I had very little beard to shave but after about 6 months my beard was normal from the chin up and since I have a ponytail I just trim around my ears and that's a haircut for me. I have told people about the drinkable aloe vera already on this website and I hope that more people try it and do it about 5 times a day and before and right after your treatments. As for the exterior burns I used the real plant since I had a bunch of it growing at my house and it worked real good. Aloha,Wildog

Wildog

I too respect the name as it was given to me when I was in my teens for my go for broke do not give up attitude.

Thanks again for the responses and hopefully others will read about your use of Aloe for gargling.  Do you still use it now and do you think it might help me? WHere would I find the internal use in a health food store?  I live in North Texas area.

Even tonight I referred another wife to this string to get info.

Thanks again

Lardog

On Jan 05, 2012 3:58 AM lardog04 wrote:

Wildog

I too respect the name as it was given to me when I was in my teens for my go for broke do not give up attitude.

Thanks again for the responses and hopefully others will read about your use of Aloe for gargling.  Do you still use it now and do you think it might help me? WHere would I find the internal use in a health food store?  I live in North Texas area.

Even tonight I referred another wife to this string to get info.

Thanks again

Lardog

 

      I have tried to use it as my user name on most site and I couldn't believe that there are more than a few wildogs out there. I got mine my first year of living on Kauai from a long time friend. I was judging a surf contest on Kauai ( I am a certified ASP judge) and some body yelled out " Hey Wildog" and some guy known as just "wil" turned his head like he thought they were yelling at him and the person looked at him and told him there is only one real Wildog and it is me. I still use the Aloe Vera for my throat and the brand I use is namd Quantum and costs about $22 at a health store but there are a couple more to quality brands, just don't buy the cheap flavored kind. The Quantum brand does not taste bad and actually tastes pretty good. I hope more people use it. The reason I decided to use it is it is used for burns and that is what Radiation does to you. About 3 days before I was finished with treatments I couldn't swallow any more but I kept swishing it since your saliva glands are not in the throat but all around the inside of your mouth so you don't have to swallow it. I swallowed it because they were radiating from the bottom of my nose to level with my shoulders. Maybe I should start a new thread here about it so more people would see it. Aloha,Wildog

Wildog

Might not be a bad idea ad I refered another woman yesterday to this thread as her husband stopped his chemo and radiation treatments.

I think most people only key in for the exact article they are interested in due to time constraints.

As always thanks and good luck.

I and the wife were going to go to Kauai before I got sick and have talked about re scheduling the trip. I will let you know and hopefully we can meet.

Regards

Lardog

Wildog

One last question, do you still use the Aloe today for your throat for gargling and do you think there is any benifits?

Do you still have dry mouth or are your salivary glands restored and to what degree do you think compared to a normal person pre treatment.

Lardog

On Jan 06, 2012 3:24 PM lardog04 wrote:

Wildog

One last question, do you still use the Aloe today for your throat for gargling and do you think there is any benifits?

Do you still have dry mouth or are your salivary glands restored and to what degree do you think compared to a normal person pre treatment.

Lardog

 lardog, First off I no longer live on Kauai. After over 40 years my brother got in touch and needed my help with a couple of homes we own and businesses we have together. Then the next day my employers told me they were moving to tha mainland and selling their property that I took care of. The property is 2 acres on the beach in Haena and Pierce Brosnan is the next door neighbor. Jobs are hard to find over there and I didn't want to waste my savings on rent. I am in Az now and living rent free and the cost of living here is a big change from Kauai. Kauai has also changed to much and to many of the wrong kind of people have moved there in the last 10 years and they have messed it up. Yes I still use the Aloe Vera but it helps other parts of your body also and it sure won't hurt you to use it.I only use it 1 time a day now and that is enough. I only have a little dry mouth and even my ENT is stoked that I never lost any of my taste buds and only minor loss in my salivary glands,plus he told me he had a couple of patients that also used it so I am obviously not a pioneer in the use. Like I said before the main thing is to use a quality brand and not a cheap one like George's . Good Luck,wildog

On Nov 10, 2010 5:46 PM bigfatking wrote:

My last day of treatment at U.M for throat cancer was sort of like being released from prison. They handed me my duffle bag said "go home". Now what? What do I eat, what supplements do I take, if any? What about exercise?

Well it's been two years and even though I work for a supplement manufacturer, I wonder about the diet and supplement intake of other cancer survivors like myself. At this point, 5gr. of Vita C, a couple thousand mg's of Omega 3 and some CoQ10 is about it.

@bigfatking - My father takes Fucoidan as a supplement and it has helped him maintain his energy, appetite, and sleep.  It has made his journey with cancer much more manageable.  Contact me if you need more info...

@bigfatking - My father takes Fucoidan as a supplement and it has helped him maintain his energy, appetite, and sleep. It has made his journey with cancer much more manageable. Contact me if you need more info...