Hello all! My husband is half-way done with his 6 week radiation treatment for Stage II BOT. He just developed mucositis, cancer center prescribed magic mouthwash and due to excessive pain; a fentenayl patch. Patch hasn't kicked in yet, I was told to augment with hydrocodone until late tomorrow. My question is regarding magic mouthwash; my husband says all it does is burns, he doesn't get the numbing element that was described. Has anyone else had this? Solutions? We're likely heading toward a feeding tube if this isn't solved soon. MuGard arrives Wednesday, but may be a little too late? He has an accelerated last two weeks of treatment; two sessions a day. I believe it's not going to get any better soon.

I'm thrilled to be among such brave and caring people.

Coco

Welcome Coco. There are many types of magic mouthwashes depending on the pharmacy, and mostly include a mixture of compounds, some which can be made with OTC meds, except for the prescriptions, that can include Benadryl, antiseptic, maalox, mylanta, kaopectate, pain reliever, lidocaine. The typical blend of measurements may be posted here, if you search or ask the pharmacist, but some have good results with MuGuard, but I never used it. It's not too late, radiation continue working 6 weeks post treatment, and some ailments persist for several months, and longer like dry mouth.

Mucositus can be exasperated by spicy, acidic and sharp textured foods, dry mouth, dry air. So avoiding these foods, treating dry mouth, and using a humidifier may help relieve symptoms. Opioids may relieve the pain, but some may need to treat the neuropathic pain.

There are a number of measures to treat dry mouth, exorostemia, with rinses, I use biotene dry mouth toothpaste, rinse, gum, gel. There are othet lozenges, salivary substitutes, some stone stone fruit puts, citric fruit, water, milk that help stimulate or replicate saliva.

Some use prescription pilocarpine to stimulate salivary flow, or Amifostine administered 30 minutes prior to radiation to protect the salivary gland during radiation, with mixed results, and have found the injection has lesser toxic side effects than with IV.

Good luck.

Lidcocaine is the numbing agent, make sure it is part of the formula. The numbing only lasts a short time as it is NOT systemic, but topical. So basically numbs on contact, unlike a painkiller like codeine or oxy that works systemically through the bloods stream. So ideally he should use it before he eats or drinks his nutrition, and he should take his pain meds maybe 15 minutes to an hour before (though the patch is usually a continuous does delivery so this isn't an issue) then swish with his mouthwash beforehand and eat or drink. best of luck.

Our RO suggested using the mouthwash in two steps -- take a smallish sip, swish to stop the burning sensation first, then when it starts to numb, then put the rest into the mouth and swish. This time, the swishing is for the sores. Maybe this will work for your husband.

Coco, the only thing that worked for me was viscous lidocaine. I would get a good mouthful of the stuff and swish and hold it in there for as long as 10 minutes. Mind you, it doesn't do anything for radiation burns down in the throat, it's only good for mouth sores (since you can't swallow it), but I found it was the only way I could numb my mouth sufficiently to get the nutritional liquid down. It's a prescription medication that I'm sure your doc could phone in so you could get it pronto.