Hi Everyone!
From what I understand the blades are tongue depressors, Jerry Wilck said maybe I can find them at a CVS.
Eileen,thanks for the info, I think mom is going to go with Jerry's office to have her teeth done. They have already helped her so much. She had a root canal done there by Dr. Kanner and she had no pain! I am still in disbelief over that one...my experience has always been terrible. Needless to say, I am very impresses with everyone there.
Margaret, mom is doing better. She is doing ok with the Erbitux, she said the rash has started but I haven't seen it yet. I'm always looking at her-poor thing-and if anything she looks a lot better this week. I will tell her about doing th high pitched E. Also, I am seeing an ever changing pain pattern. This morning when I was sharing post with her she didnn't even remember being upset about the molar area pain right away.
Gary, is it four fingers across, or vertically? We all had a good laugh here today.
I shared all the posts earlier and I think they were a great dose of medicine.

Hi Donna,

I'm glad your mom is doing better. After a tough round of thrush, we're actually having a pretty good day here too.

Dan's rash started on his stomach and back and moved quickly up to his scalp. Initially, they didn't treat it, although it was another source of discomfort. There was some thought that the rash was a "good" thing and a sign that the Erbitux was working well. Now the rash is turning into very dry skin patches vs. the acne type rash it was and we are able to put a rx ointment on it that makes it more comfortable...it is called Biafin. He could use over the counter Aquaphor, but he didin't like that.

We have found that running a humidifier has been helpful for the rash and the dry mouth...not that it solves the problem...just both are a little tiny bit more comfortable when we run it regularly than when we don't.

So, what do you do with the tongue depressors?

Gary, LOL about your big mouth. :-)

Also, thanks, I'll ask about the morphine patch. Dan struggled with night terrors from the Fentynal and it made any kind of consistent sleep impossible. For pain, he liked the patch over the pills...I know he wished he could have tolerated it better. He hasn't been able to tolerate food and liquids as well since he has been off of it...but, the thrush was occuring during that transistion.

A note on thrush, Dan's started last Saturday night around 11:00 p.m. Have you, or your mom been told to be on the look out for that? We knew to be on the look out, and I called on Sunday to have a Rx phoned into our pharmacy. What shocked me is how quickly it went from a small problem to a big problem. And, it took 4 days before the medication started to have an impact.

I would have called it in on Saturday night and driven to a 24 hour pharmacy if I had known that it could move so quickly. I dont' know if that is typical or not. But, on top of the mucositis, that was a major source of pain.

I don't think it happens to everyone, but I think it's pretty common.

Hope that things continue to go well.

I don't know what to look for as far as the thrush is concerned.
The only thing I know about the tongue depressors/stacking blades is what Brian wrote above-
Stacking tongue blades in her mouth between her front teeth and stretching her mouth to the maximum number of blades several times a day all the way through treatment and for several months thereafter until the healing has taken place is a necessity. Failure to do this can leave her with life long consequences.
I copied and pasted what he wrote. Hope this helps.
I am taking my younger daughter and two of her friends to the shore this weekend, she will turn 11 on Monday. I am a nervous wreck about leaving my mom. My dad will be home as will my 17 yr old daughter. I don't know why I worry so much, I'm sure they are capable and mom seems to be feeling better. I may ask my Aunt Jane to check in on her. She has dealt with several different cancers, herself, her sister and another friend. She's one of mom's best friends and very, very positive.
I'm going to try to check in, here at the OCF, over the weekend.
Can't thank everyone enough. I continue to share this forum with everyone I meet at the HUP. I hope they remember the slip of paper and log on when they get home.
Donna

Hi Donna,

Forgot to mention in our emails and your post above reminded me that if your mom's upper partial won't stay in while trying to do the stretching with the tongue depressors, she can do it without the partial in. It will probably be better this way, anyway. I needed them after my surgery and it was very helpful. I was given some by my speech therapist at Fox Chase. We don't use them in the office or I would have given you some.

Gary, I think anyone with teeth will find 3 fingers to be normal. Not saying you're abnormal. But 4 fingers, WOW. Must have been a lot of yelling.

Donna, thanks for saying all those nice things about our office.

Enjoy the weekend away, you deserve it.

Jerry

Hi Donna,

Thanks for repeating the info on how to use the tongue blade, I must have skimmed by that. I showed the info to my husband and it is something he is very open to trying.

Sometimes, during radiation, the environment of the mouth changes and thrush can develop. I searched the main site and found this link:
http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/dental/candida.htm

It shows a not so pretty picture of the thrush on a tongue. Although, that's pretty close to what it looked like on my husband.

I was surprised, in my husband's situation, at how fast it took over in 24 hours. It really got us off track with fluids and calories.

If it happens, I'd page your doctor right away. Ours didn't make Dan come in, he just called in a prescription over the weekend.

I know it doesn't happen to everyone. And, hopefully, it won't happen to your mom.

How fun that you are taking your daughter and a friend away to celebrate your daughter's birthday.

I hope you are able to relax and enjoy! I bet that is what your mom is hoping for you as well! :-)