Anne Marie,
I'm sorry to hear that your son is suffering from so much pain. He and my husband are at about the same place in radiation (Friday was tx #10). Luckily there are many things available to help your son with the pain. He MUST talk to the radiation nurses/doctors about his symptoms and what they would recommend, but in the meantime here are some suggestions.
- Have him use an over-the-counter analgesic/pain killer like Tylenol or Advil to get him through the weekend. Once he communicates with his MD/RN, they can prescribe something stronger.
- Trying various foods to find what is least offensive: yogurt, Boost or Ensure drinks (you can find at the grocery or drug store), mashed potatoes with gravy, soft scrambled eggs with cheese, over-cooked pasta with alfredo sauce. He should try varying the temperature of food, too, as he may not tolerate things being very hot or very cold. My husband is even enjoying the occasional ice cream sandwich - he says the "cookie" part is really soft so doesn't scratch his mouth/throat, and it feels like a real treat!
- As others have mentioned, a PEG tube may come into play in the future, though I think right now you two need to just get through the weekend.
- My husband was also given a liquid aloe medication called OraMagic RX that he can swish around in his mouth and either spit out or swallow. It isn't a pain reliever per se, but is very soothing to his mouth and throat. I think this is a prescription-only product, but you could ask the radiation RN/MD if they have anything similar to suggest. I have read on the forum about other people finding liquid aloe in health food centers, so you could try doing a forum search for "aloe."
- Avoid anything acidic. Even applesauce burns my husband's mouth and throat. He was really missing coffee so has been mixing a little bit of espresso with some ice cream to get it down and not suffer from caffeine withdrawals on top of everything else.
Also David made an excellent point: Once your son starts taking pain meds, constipation can be a huge issue so he needs to stay on top of that and use stool softeners (like milk of magnesia) BEFORE it comes a problem!
Good luck to you! Make sure your son speaks with someone on Monday at his radiation appointment - they should have lots of good ideas for him as well as some helpful medications.
-Tricia
