My husband Chuck finished 13th rad treatment today. After 11th treatment his throat became
sore very quickly, it is of course hard to swallow now, we have the "magic mouthwash, orimagic, etc" all lined up. We were wondering,
will the throat keep getting sorer and sorer with
additional treatments, or after some point is it
as sore as it will get.
So far he still has saliva and some taste,just
the sore throat and 20 treatments to go! Cindy

Cindy

My husbands throat did get sorer into his fourth week, but thats the easier of the side effects to control. Make sure he has adequate pain meds. It makes all the difference, the amounts need to go up as time goes on. My husband is on treatment #31 with 23 treatments left. Right now he is taking 2 tsp. Roxicet every 4 hours and he has a 25 mg fentanol patch. This is managing his pain for now altough we'll probably have to add another 25.mg patch by next week. Its the mucous and the mucositis that get worse as you go. If you ever need any advice just write. This is the best support group... Good Luck Cindy

Cindy, Chuck will soon reach that 'zone' of soreness where more doesn't mean very much. The body will only allow a certain amount of pain to 'come through'. My throat and mouth pain continued for quite a while, but I don't remember it continuing to get worse. Use the rinses and pain meds. There is nothing heroic about enduring pain. Its exhausting and drains body resources away from other things - like surviving and holding on to calories and hydration. More fluids and more sleep are often very helpful with the discomforts. Getting hungry, or tired or dehydrated are all likely to make him feel much, much worse. Get the best pain meds they offer and use them liberally. Chuck will know when to taper off. Be strong. Tom

My sore throat got worse up until about week 5 then just stayed at a (pretty bad) level of soreness after that for a month or two......as Cindy said, there are other things (phlegm and mucositis)that will get worse and make the sore throat seem like old news after a while. Just be sure you have adequate pain meds and take one day at a time.....

I know it's hard hearing things will just keep getting worse, you are about where I was exactly one year ago. The treatment for this disease teaches you the meaning of perseverence in a way you may never have known it before! The good news is that even though treatment takes too long and recovery can seem like it takes forever, it really *does* get better eventually!

Nelie

One thing to check on is whether your husband has developed a yeast infectioin in his mouth ("thrush"-- see OCF web site for more info). My husband's mouth got very sore very suddenly, a major burning pain when he drank or ate at about 2 1/2 weeks (much sooner than we had expected). At that point he had almost no mucositis -- it was thrush. As the normal oral flora is damaged by the radiation the yeast can take over. There may be small white spots (actually colonies of yeast) on the mucosa of the mouth, especially on the soft palate and back of the throat -- these come off easily when touched *carefully* with a dampened q-tip. Mucositis lesions do not come off, as they are erosions of the actual mouth lining -- rather like large canker sores.

The good news, sort of, is that thrush is treatable -- my husband's doctors gave him Diflucan, an oral tablet, and also a Nystatin rinse. The thrush came under control and the burning went away. Eventually more extensive mucositis came in, but that's a different story...

Gail