My husband had a small tumour removed from his tongue in may last year and a neck dissection, sadly a small part was 'missed' and 60% of his tongue and the floor of his mouth were removed and a neck dissection on the other,side in November.. This was followed by 6 weeks radiotherapy. He suffered badly with mucositis and we are now into the third week past the treatment. He has little appetite and of course has lost a lot of weight. Any suggestions please for the best foods for him. We are both aged 73 ( not sure if that is relevant)

Sue, welcome to OCF! Congrats to your husband on finishing his treatments! The worst of everything should be about over at this point. Most patients will begin to feel a little better at about the 3 week post tx time frame. The best thing that can be done to heal and speed his recovery is to continue to pus the nutrition and hydration. Every single day he should be getting at least 2500 calories and 48 oz of water. If you can get him to take in more thats even better! There is high protein whey powder that mixes easily in water or any liquid that will also help to speed healing. Here is a list of easy to easy foods, they have a smoother texture and less spicy so they should be easier for him.

Best wishes with your husbands continued recovery!

Easy to Eat Foods



PS... Ask the doc for a prescription for magic mouthwash to help numb his mouth for a few minutes. This will help him to eat. Also try using a rinse of 16oz warm water, 2 tsp baking soda and 2 tsp salt. Rinse at least 4 times per day with this to help get the ph balance in his mouth back to normal and also help his sore mouth to heal. If it burns cut too much back on the salt.

In addition to the above, difficulty eating, chewing, swallowing, unplanned weight loss is also muti-factorial, so each needs to be addressed, treated, such as mucositus, dysphagia, trismus, xerostomia, food aversions, sensitivities, anorexia, metabolic changes, and any fungal, bacterial or viral infections that can prevent obtaining adequate nutrition, hydration.

Good luck with everything.

For the mouth sores, you can also use flat club soda. He can swallow this too and may help the throat heal. If the regular club soda burns his mouth, see if you can get the low sodium club soda. Club soda works in the same way as the baking soda Christine mentioned in her posts. You have the advantage of not having to make a fresh batch everyday.

Yogurt!! Plus we purchased a high-powered blender (some manufacturers have discounts available) and we make smoothies.. try almonds, olive oil, kale, protein powder, blue berries, ice/water... and more!

Sue, I'm so sorry to hear about your husband's situation and my thoughts are with you both. I used prescription viscous lidocaine to numb my mouth prior to drinking the complete nutritional drinks that on this side of the ocean go by various brand names, the most widespread being Ensure and Boost. But there are plenty of generics and I'm sure you can find some. The lidocaine was the only thing that helped me to get anything down, and I still lost 30 pounds.

Please keep writing and asking questions. We're part of your family now and we're here to help.

Thank you so much for replying. We will press on with all the advice and try everything. Dave does use gelclair, rinse to numb the mouth and oxycaine to line the throat, prior to eating, I expect they are the English equivalents. I suppose neither of us realised how devastating and debilitating the radiotherapy would be, so I'm encouraged when I read that we aren't the only ones. Thank you again, I will keep in touch.

Thank you for all your suggestions and support, we will be trying everything,

Hi there.. I have a morning smoothie that gets me through to 1pm every day. It's fresh fruit, protein powder, almond milk, and flax. TIS awesome. Since it's thick it's easy to drink, the high protein helps healing, and it's low in sugar (natural sugars from the fruit) and filling. I would avoid processed foods as they mostly have a lot of chemicals, salt and sugar in them. Stick to natural foods (veggies steamed etc...) It helps heal and tastes best... for me at least. take care and best of luck.

our chemo nurse just gave us the Rebecca Katz book.. "One bite at a time".. check out the Mineral Broth!!
She has several books and is doing a book tour for her new book!
Good luck