I have an idea which we use for the mucuscitis. We carry around our own personal spitune. I rinsed out an old Ensure bottle. It is colored and people don't know what is in it. They assume you are carring a drink. Disgusting, but it works

Mucositis (just to keep the terminology correct) is not the production of all that extra mucus in your mouth that you are spitting out during treatment. (For which your spit bottle would work well) It is the red ulcerations that are very painful that come as a result of the radiation treatments of chemo. There are clinical trials on drugs now to reduce this (wound healing drugs) and hopefully something will be available in the next 18 months. Those people will still have to deal with the excess mucus production though.

Hello, my dad has this. He is in a lot of pain. How long does this last?

Mine lasted in an very acute form for 3 months after the end of radiation treatment. For several months more it continued in a lesser form (still on opiates for it) before it toned down and the sores went away, though the tissue was still tender and irritated by many things for long after this. Remember I went through before IMRT radiation was popular.

I lectured to a group of doctors at a symposium yesterday for 3 hours. Today my tongue is swollen, and the inside of my mouth feels like someone sandblasted it. This is normal for me, after talking for that long. Even with the lubricants like Oral Balance, lots of water, this is the nature of my final outcome. Ingrid is doing most of the talking today, and I know that by tomorrow things will tone down and I be back to "my normal." So it goes, but rest assured that the acute stages of open sores will not last forever, but a mouth that is pain free, may be elusive in the long run. I spend a lot of my days on the phone with patients, doctors, reporters, government and university people, and some evenings I still put lidocaine rinse in my mouth with ice water. Don't consture this as complining, I am just painting a picture from my perspective. 8 years out, a life rich with the possiblity of change in the oral cancer paradigm, coupled with a daily reminder that no positive (survival) comes without a bit of a negative. A good balance by my account.

Did you have this during radiation, right after, or later on. My dad didn't get this until after radiation and chemo ended. Like weeks after, kind of out of nowhere. I think because it's weeks later he is confused about why this is happening. What does the oral lubricants do? Do they help? Is it for tounge, throat, or whole mouth? Thanks. I think that is so great that you give these lectures.I hope you are feeling better and get some rest.

It began about the third week of radiation, lasted all through treatment, and for months after. Your dad's experience is an exception and he should count himself lucky. Hopefully it won't last too long. If it becomes too painful for him, he needs to deal with the symtomology of it. (There isn't any curative mechanism for it right now, though there are clinical trials going on now for something to counteract it.) That may mean numbing rinses, and some kind of mouth rinse that most institutions have a formula for to tone the discomfort down. Have him let his doc know so they can get him on something. If it gets bad enough, he will be on pain meds to control the situation, but of course they will have nothing to do with how long it lasts.