Hi Mandi!

I would love to have the recipe for the milkshake. My Dad's tumor is about ther size of a small egg on the inside of his mouth and it seems like milkshakes,pudding, and yogurt are all he can seem to get down( besides Boost). He started chemo today so who knows what he will be able to keep down during chemo. I have heard it is different for everyone.
Thanks lots,
Kacy

Mandi, Thanks for responding and yep, I did see that recipe on your other post from some time ago. I was so thrilled with it - I copied it and have it stuck to my refrigerator to have on hand! I believe you and Dennis had dubbed it the "MEGA-SHAKE". Anyways - I have the recipe handy and here it is for anyone interested again.

Blend together:

1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup half-and-half
2 cups ice-cream
1 TBSP. malted milk
2 TBSP. Ovaltine
1 package Carnation Instant Breakfast

Thank you so very much for sharing this recipe with us. I'm sure it will be very helpful to those who are having a hard time with solids or just love to savor something sweet and creamy. I hope your husband is doing well - and my best wishes to you both in this battle. Take care.

Mandi...if you ever want to find something in the message boards, just go to the search link under the title, next to "my profile,' and type in your key search words, and select search all forums. I just typed in megashake, and it search everything and turned up your original post. Now if you want to send that post to someone, there is an "email this post link" and you can just enter their email address or you can copy the post http address out of the top of your browser, and paste that into your response to them. In this case http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=000079;p=2#000043

Thanks DonnaJean for the recipe! I hope to make it for my Dad soon!

Kacy

When I broke my leg back in the 70's, I lost 50% of the muscle mass in the leg in a few weeks because it was in a cast. It is normal for the body to absorb muscle tissue when the muscles aren't being used (I believe they call this atrophy). I have lost a lot of muscle mass just be being in bed so much. I am a little under 3 weeks away from treatment (rad/chemo) and am only out of bed a few hours a day. I am slowly getting a little more energy every day.
And, also, I have had days where I throw up all of my pills also, have a hard time keeping water down - radiation sickness??

Gary,
My husband is 2 weeks away from radiation and chemo and is also spending most of his time in bed and has very low energy. He also throws up once in awhile, particularly when he takes his antibiotic (he had an infection of his pic line that was inserted to deliver the Ethyol). He is also continuing ot lose weight, even though he is getting almost 3000 calories through the PEG tube. Are you experiencing weight loss post treatment? He has lost so much weight it is scary. But he had an ENT/Oncologist appointment yesterday and they reassured us that this post-treatment period is the hardest part.

Hope you both start feeling better soon.

Anita

Hi Anita,
Yes, I am still losing weight -about a pound or two a week. I did not have a PEG tube. Your oncologist was right on the money - post radiation treatment is the roughest part. I was suddenly ill this morning for no apparent reason (I felt fine yesterday). It's exactly three weeks for me today and I'm still waiting for a positive change. I am also experiencing a lot of the thyroid damage symptoms -fast pulse rate. hot & cold, etc.

Hi, as most of you know, my husband had the modified neck dissection surgery on 2/6/03 and has had quite a problem with the swelling from it. Well, yep - he still has it, only now it seems like it's "traveling" to the other side of his face. It also still hurts to swallow with the gullet in his throat. ( A pool or pocket where food and liquid and pills seem to get caught). The doctors he has seen recently (his oral surgeon and radiation oncologist) do not seem too concerned about it...basically telling him there isn't anything that can be done for it. The radiation doctor did find it odd that John still can't eat "any" food he wants - but the fact remains that there are many things still off limits yet because it's either too spicy, hard, dry or involves a lot of chewing. And this swelling he is experiencing only complicates matters. I don't really expect anyone to offer any solutions to this problem - believe me, John has tried just about everything - and nothing seems to help. I guess I just wanted to throw this out there and to see if anyone has experienced any swelling that seems to move to the other side of the face as well as the original side. Thanks for listening.

Donnna in the last few day's I've started with sort of the same thing. Remembering I had the neck dissection on the left side in September, things had pretty much gotten back to normal by the time of the dissection on the right side. Now, the right side is swollen obviously, but I'm feeling the sensation of someone grabbing my neck and squeezing on both sides now, left side also.

Going to make an appt with the ENT this week and see what's up. Also will see the radiation doc today (chemo/rad week 2) and see what he says.

Bob

Bob - please keep us posted on what the ENT doc says. I hope all turns out well for you. My husband was just seen by his surgeon on 4/8 and the radiation oncologist on 4/11 - neither one expressed any concern over the swelling - or the "squeezing/tightness" sensation (like someone is trying to choke you from behind) - so if it was anything to worry about, I'm sure they would have said something. Nonetheless, being the worry-wart that I am - it's frustrating not having all the answers and even more aggravating is the fact that I can't "do" anything to help him feel any better - except be there for support and encouragement and be the best home-nurse I can try to be. His next Dr's appt. is not until 5/13. But please let us know how things are going - and I wish you all the best. Take care.