Since neither my sister nor I live in the same town as our mother we have been sharing the radiation treatment period; I am now back in town to take her for the last week ( of four).I guess I dont need to tell you about the pain of swallowing - she tries valiently but says everything but water stings and burns. However, my sister was given a script for solucortef - she told me the doctor said it is a local anesthetic. Googling comes up with some kind of steroid but I cannot find any references to this liquid form or for using it so you can swallow. I wont be able to ask an MD until mid week. Does anyone know what it is, how it works,side effects, and how far ahead of meal time it should be given?

I bullied my mother ( age 91) into drinking an entire can of Ensure Plus. It hurt.She hated the oily texture. And it took 3.5 hours.BUT the neat thing was about half way through it you could SEE her getting some energy back.

Second question - is it true that the radiation will keep working for 2-3 weeks after treatment stops? And if so, does that mean she will continue to get worse before eventually plateauing? I am trying to anticipate what sort of care she will need as I have to go back to work.

WD