My husband is on his 10th day of radiation for oral cancer. He is suffering from mouth sores and is considering terminating his treatment. He has 20 more treatments to go. He has medication and it helps somewhat. I'm at a loss. Does anyone have any advice.

I would advise to stick with it. I had the same thing happen to me and was prescribed Magic Mouthwash, Lidocaine oral gel, & some Narcotic pain reliever. I just had my 19th treatment today of a scheduled 30 and my most painful sores (on my inner lips & tongue) are healing up.

I had to revert back to a soft foods diet during this phase, which can make getting calories a bit difficult. Nutritional drinks come in handy here, like Ensure+.

I would advise using a salt & baking soda rinse as well, alternating with the Magic Mouthwash. Avoid crunchy foods & other foods that are rough on the oral cavity.

Good luck.

I used Healios during my rads and for 2 weeks after and it helped a lot.

I used the grape and flavorless varieties and would not use the grape again as I did not like the flavor which made it hard to swallow during radiation treatment, which caused me nausea.

Welcome to OCF! Im very glad you have found our site to help get you and your husband thru the difficult weeks ahead. We fully understand what you both are going thru as we've been down that path ourselves. Theres a tremendous amount of info and suggestions you can find reading thru posts on our public forum.

Reading about your husband having difficulties and wanting to quit rads after only 10 treatments, makes me very concerned!!! He is correct... radiation treatments are very difficult. Plus they become progressively more difficult the further along you go thru treatments. If he is struggling already at only his 10th rad, its going to be one long, hard road for him to make it thru however many rads his doc prescribed (usually around 30). Make sure his doc knows all about everything you've shared with us. If your husband feels hes struggling so much he wants to quit already, he needs to have a good talk with his doctor. This is very important and can only get worse so his doc definitely needs to be aware of this. He may also need to speak with a therapist and/or take anxiety meds temporarily. Depression is very common among OC patients, so much so that even their caregivers need to talk with a specialist and/or take anxiety meds to get thru their temporary struggles.

One of the best things I can tell you to help make this as easy as possible for your husband (and for you too) is to focus on what is controllable... his intake and/or pain levels!!! If he is struggling already, Im betting he is having trouble eating and losing weight which is a sure sign he is not taking in enough on a daily basis. Every single day your husband needs to take in a minimum of 2500 calories and 48-64 oz of water. This MUST be done every single day, its NOT ok to skimp one day saying it will get made up tomorrow. Thats the quickest way to get admitted to the hospital for malnutrition and/or dehydration. If he already is taking in 2500 calories every day and losing weight then he must increase his daily intake to 3000, 3500 or more. For what your husband is going thru taking in 3 or 4 thousand calories every day is NOT too much. His body is burning up calories at an incredible rate trying to rid itself of the cancer and rebuild itself too. He should opt for full fat everything, getting the most calories per bite is the goal to make every bite count.

If your husband isnt taking in 48-64 oz of water daily, he will quickly become dehydrated which will make him feel absolutely horrible!!! The doc can write a prescription for your husband to get extra hydration (usually done right there in the chemo lab) several days per week. I guarantee after your husband gets a couple bags of IV fluids he will feel so much better. If the doc writes the hydration prescription for a few times per week it will greatly help your husband to stay hydrated thru rads and thru the first few weeks of his recovery (usually they're the hardest part of the entire treatment plan).

Hope these ideas help.


PS... As caregiver, you have a difficult job too! Dont forget to take some time just for you. Caregivers have the weight of the world on their shoulders and can benefit from having time for themselves. Go to lunch with a friend or relative, go shopping, see a movie, get a manicure or pedicure, or anything else that you enjoy doing to give you a well deserved break. You will feel better, more like yourself after taking some time away just for you to catch your breath.