Can you eat, after radiation, even if it hurts?

[Bev'sSister]

My sister wants to eat something other than mashed potates and maccaroni, but she is afraid that eating something more solid will make it worse and it won't heal as well. Is this true.

[Marco Jo]

HI Bobby- As far as i know it is ok- my sister found that sometimes water hurt worse than food... It was sort of hit or miss which foods hurt. Is she taking carafate? That is a liquid med they use to coat the esophagus so that you can eat with less pain.I do believe that the pain passed within a week. I hope she is enjoying food again soon!

Best,

Marco Jo

[Bev'sSister]

Thanks Marco Jo. She is taking Carafate. She wants to eat a piece of fried chicken, (actually she said she wants to eat a whole fried chicken) but she worries that she is aggrevating it more if she eats something like that. Does anyone know if this is true?

[Kasey]

I don't think eating anything in particular will make the esophagus worse..........just that some things may be more difficult than others to swallow. Fried chicken............I can SMELL it, ya know, but that may be difficult to get down. If she can, however, I say she should just go for it. At least give it a try. I found that chicken was difficult due to the shredding quality. Bread was difficult too. But whatever she can manage to swallow she should..

Kasey

[ztweb]

I think she should eat whatever she can. I know this might sound yuck to some, but if it is too tough, you could grind it, and that might make it easier, with a similar taste.

Jen

[Heather_T]

If she can eat it now I would tell her to. I got to the point where I could not eat anything but chicken noodle soup and that hurt sometimes.

[asmakis]

My dad had and continues to enjoy Carnation instant breakfasts with whole milk. Also, food with gravey were much easier to handle than those without.

Hope this helps some.

:)Amanda

[trish2418]

Your sister should eat whatever she wants. Tell her to enjoy the chicken.

What a good sister you are.

Trish

[missyk]

Mom's onc told her exactly this "If you can get it to go down, eat it". Of course, for her this meant greasy hamburgers (from a LARGE CHAIN burger joint)and soups that she got really tired of very quickly. She said anything "real cold or real hot" hurt her, as did anything starchy (including the noodles from chicken noodle soup! LOL). It seems that each person is different in a way, but some things seem to hold true. Dry and crusty seems to hurt the most.

I REALLY hope she can eat that chicken!! It sounds yummy!!

[wendyr]

she should eat whatever she can, when she can. Her onc can prescribe meds for the esophagus that will numb it. The pharmacist compounds it. It's mylanta, lidocaine and benadryl

Wendy

[Snowflake]

If she even wants to eat after a dose of Carafate, she no longer has taste buds. That was the NASTIEST stuff I have EVER had to take in my WHOLE life. It makes Nyquil seem like honey! Sure, it soothed my throat a bit, but UGH!

She should decide what works best for her. I couldn't do anything dry, abrasive, or "absorbent" - as in, anything that would absorb the spit that was helping to ease it down my poor throat. Double Stuf Oreos went down real easy, but the milk chaser came close to being a suicide attempt...

Small sips of liquids, nothing real hot, nothing real cold, and just keep trying new things to see what works. It also helps to chew food until it's mush and not chunky...

[twodogs]

Bobby,

I pretty much lived on ice cream, pudding and cream filled chocolate Bismark's for a year or more. I still have to be careful with what I try to consume. I have to cut things very small and chew them until they liquefy but I'm doing it and finally gaining weight. Maybe even getting a little chunky again. Of course that may have something to do with having a beer or more once in a while too. I couldn't get that down for a couple years either.

The advice I got was the same as most. Eat as much as you can of whatever you can whenever you can.

John

[lionking]

she should eat whatever she can get down, my mom suffered terribly with this, she almost passed out swallowing....let her eat anything she wants to and can get down!

prayers and thoughts with you...hang tough!

[Bev'sSister]

Thanks for all of your replies. She is actually eating almost everything she can. She told me she ate some fried shrimp yesterday and said it hurt, but she ate it anyway. I think she is probably one of the few who has gained a couple of pounds while taking radiation. She can hardly wait til she can eat normally.