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Radiation Burns..Ouchie


kimmek

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Hi to all:

First I would like to take a moment to express my gratitude to everyone here. I come here every morning now and spend a couple of hours reading the posts. I feel this gives me the courage to face the day and what it may bring. I have even questioned my reasons for coming here, and I too was wondering if this was actually a good thing for me to be doing. And after much thought and plenty of post reading, I decided yes it is, especially since I have no one here really in my life to talk to about my mom's illness. Yes, i have support from family members but im afraid they are all like my mom and just think the doctors will "fix" her and all will be back to normal. I have even been accused (by my own son) that I was already "buring Mema". No, but if this first round of treatment does not work, then I am more than prepared for round 2. or even round 50 if need be.Mom doesnt even think beyond that. This is going to work for her and thats all there is to it. So now I just keep my mouth shut about future treatments etc.. Although I think I did get Moms attention yesterday when she over heard me speaking to someone else about facing the enemy and preparing for battle...I mean how can you fight or go to war in anything if you dont know who or what you are fighting against. You would not go off to war and not know at least how many, what weapons you need, etc...Same theory applies here. So maybe she thought about that some.

Anyway. Mom is doing really well, she finished up 6 rounds of chemo yesterday (low-dose taxol/carbo) and has 8 or 9 more radiation treaments left. Her esophogus is really starting to hurt pretty bad from the burns. She actually broke down at chemo yesterday and ask for pain meds. On a scale of 1-10 she told the nurse after some serious thought that her pain was a 8 or 9. Wow, i told her again there is no reason for her to live like that, she can take something for the pain. They gave her demerol in her iv then called in some liquid lortab for her. She also has a mixture of lydicane,malox,benadryl to numb her throat along with something called oramagic to heal the tissue faster. She has found some relief using all 3 of these things, but not alot. I was wondering if anyone has experienced this and what they found that worked the best. The pain is pretty constant now, and excruciating when she swallows wether it be solids,liquids or just clearing her throat in general. We see the radiation onc today and maybe she has something else up her sleeve, but ive learned her the best advise seems to come from here.

Thanks in advance and wish everyone a blessed day

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Kim,

Your mom's reaction to radiation sounds similar to mine. I too had chemo and radiation at the same time, and while it provides better results, it also brings out the radiation side effects much more.

Your post brought back memories of my last two weeks of radiation where I had to drag myself in the treatment center each day and would find the sweetest nurse there afterwards who would hook me up with a much needed bag of fluids almost daily and would sit with me while I cried all over her about how I couldn't do it anymore because the pain in my throat was just too bad. I was given all sorts of numbing meds (magic mouthwash and some other yucky tasting stuff) but none helped for long. As your mom knows, it's not an easy treatment. If you look at the burns on the OUTSIDE of the skin, you can only immagine what the INSIDES look like. Of course, my doc put a positive spin on it by saying "well, if that's what your skin looks like, imagine what we are doing to the tumor!" :wink:

My oncologist also said the pain should subside about 2 weeks after completing treatment, and for most people it does (mine lingered over a month after treatment)......BUT.....THE GOOD NEWS is that the pain does eventually subside and your throat returns to normal.

Tell her to just keep on going, there is light at the end of the tunnel!!!

Feel free to PM me at any time if you have any other radiation side effects -- if there was a side effect to be had with that treamtment, I think I had it!!! :roll:

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Kim,

They should be able to give your mother something for pain if it is that severe. No reason she should have to endure that, it's counter productive for healing and attitude.

OR--If the mouthwash with the lidocane in it doesn't help (swallow a little bit), maybe the doctor would let her try plain lidocane on top of that. My daughter just had her tonsils out, and the ENT gave that to her. Said she could swallow some, but the pharmacist gets nervous, because if you drink too much you can numb your stomach and gut too, but that would NUMB the throat completely.It's lidocane oral solution 2%.

I really hope your mom starts to feel better.

One foot in front of the other, one day at a time..... That may be her approach right now, to just focus on the current task, and get through the day. Time enough to worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.

XOXOXOXOX

Prayers always,

MaryAnn

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Kim,

Near the end of the radiation treatments my Mom had problems as well. The Onc. gave her the magic mouth wash to use, be she also drank aloe vera juice which seemed to help with the healing. You can find it at some pharmacies or at a health food store. Also an ulcer medicine called carafate (sp?) seemed to help. I think Ginny's Earl used this as well.

As for foods, my mom ate a lot of pudding and lukewarm soup when her throat bothered her. Only a little bit at a time mind you.

Hope you can find something that helps.

Faylene

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I vote for the Smoothies. Whenever I couldn't get other things down Lucie, she would respond to Smoothies. Because of radiation to her upper spine, she did have a burning in her throat, plus the mouth sores from the Taxotere. My daughter dubbed me the "Food Nazi" because I was always trying to get her to consume something. Also helps the nausea if the stomach has something in it every two hours or so. Don

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Hi Kim-

I can understand what your Mom is going through! I developed a yeast infection in my throat the first week, the pain was unlike anything I have every experienced in my lifetime! My throat has been hurting since day one. I actually tried to refuse treatment because I felt that it was in human to go through this from the beginning, didn't work, my Husband dragged me kicking and screaming that next week. Took me awhile to realize that the pain (no matter how severe) would be over sometime and well worth it. I also developed 3rd degree radiation burning4 weeks into treatment (if something is going to go wrong it will happen to me!)

I have 5 more radiation treatments left! Hurray! I have all the mouth washes there are and am taking 2 percocets every 4 hours for pain, hard to believe I know what my name is still! I believe that this will pass soon! They have narrowed the radiation beam and now are only hitting the edge of my esophagus, after one week of the narrowed treatment, I have been able to stop one round of my pain pills!

It's sooooo hard to drink let alone eat. I force myself....curseing and screaming the entire time. I see the other cancer patients who look so sickly and thin and it has scared me into doing what ever the Dr's tell me, I refuse to lose weight or become dehydrated, if nothing else I have control over that part of my body!

I have an email buddy who is same stage, same treatment, same pain. Her Dr's perscribed liquid morphine for her to take at meal time to help, seems to be helping her some. Makes it a little easier for her to eat. Other then that, tears help, they are not as good but do realive the stress.

Good luck to you and your Mom, believe me, she needs you to lean on. Don;t know what I would do without my Mother everyday to tell me I will be OK and can do it! Then I have my Husband at night to hold my hand with each bite of food I take, and watch me cry. Hang in there as my Grandmother would say "this too shall pass"!

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Kim-I also went through it with my chemo/radiation. For one week all I ate were popcicles everthing else hurt too much. I would let your mom eat whatever she can and if it's smoothies then bring on the smoothies! (you can make them with Ensure or Boost to add some vitamins). Try differnt things. I liked things cold but some liked room temp better. I'd just keep trying.

One thing to remember... I thought I'd ALWAYS hate food and I'd never feel like eating again but after a time the docs narrowed the radiation field and it moved off my neck bit by bit. It is AMAZING how quickly your body will try to heal itself and it didn't take really long before it was almost tolerable, then tolerable etc. It only lasts for a time and then it will s-l-o-w-l-y get better. One thing though because of the radiation my esophogus has narrowed and curved a little. I saw it on my barium swallows and now over a year from treatment I still need to take small bits and chew them well. Things will stick in there a little.

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The only thing that I could swallow well was a milk shake...I would put it in the freezer for about an hour...get it ice cold and thick...then eat it with a spoon. I was soothing to my throat... Magic mouthwash helped too. Keep us in touch.

Nina

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