Read If You Are Spitting Blood

[Bill]

Obviously, spitting blood is a serious symptom that warrants prompt medical attention. But, just make sure that your treating physician is certain as to the origin of the blood. AFTER STARTING CHEMO my wife went thru two months of spitting blood. Brownish-purplish tinged sputum in the morning and after naps. Usually bright red sputum intermittently while active during the day. Everybody was becoming concerned about this. She even went thru two courses of antibiotic tx with negligible improvement. Come to find out that the cause of my wife's bleeding wasn't from her lungs at all. It was chemo-induced bleeding from some pre-existing periodontal disease. Once this condition was corrected the bleeding immediately stopped.

[cindi o'h]

Bill,

What did her dentist do to treat her periodontal disease?

And at what point in her cancer treatment is she?

Was she able to endure the treatment for the periodontal disease while she was going through chemo? Or did she have to wait awhile before they could start treatment for the periodontal disease?

Thanks Cindi o'h

[SDianneB]

I didn't have the bleeding, but am prone to gum problems, and my diagnosis came right about the time I was due for a cleaning. The oncologist had me wait, of course, until chemo was done to avoid potential infection, but it worried me a great deal.

Through the entire regimen of chemo and radiation, I used Listerine to try and help my gums make it through. They warned me that if I got sores in my mouth to stop the Listerine, but that never happened. When I was finally cleared to have my teeth cleaned, I had managed to maintain from the time before, except that my teeth had been stained badly by the antibiotics I'd taken while in the hospital.

I'm grateful to have made it through all that with my gums in tolerable shape and to still have teeth!

Di