YEA, Dani!!!!!!!! What a huge relief! I am so happy for you!
Judy U

Dani,
I am so very happy for you. I thought about you tons of times today, hoping that you were going to get that "walking on air" feeling after the doctors appointment. I'm glad I got on one last time tonight to see if you had posted yet. Has Danny posted about his first Chemo treatment yet? He has also been on my mind.
Love,
Minnie

Dani,

I am so glad to hear about your mother! YAHOO!! Here, before the do anything with the exposed bone, they do the hypberbaric chamber treatments first and then use an antibiotic drip to treat the infection. Infection in the bone after radiation should require special care. Not knowing any more about your mom than I do, it might not hurt to ask.

Ed

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers I know they really help. Minnie, you are soooooo sweet! Ed, I suggested the HBO treatments and her ENT said.......that he does not recommend it because he said something about cancer feeding off of oxegen and if by chance (he seriously doubts it) that there is the smallest cancer cell left it may possibly fuel off the oxegen. Does that make sense and has anybody else ever heard that before? And yes he did say that infection in the bone after radiation is very serious and should not be taken lightly. One of the biggest problems shes up against is that she is highly allergic to penicillin, amoxicillin and any antiobiotic with cillin in the name so that limits what he can do to fight the infection. Is this anything that anybody else has been up against. It is now his biggest concern and wants to see her every week to see how she progresses with the antibiotics....

DAni

I have read that somewhere about HBO as well. However, this was on Univ. of Penn's website:
RELATIONSHIP OF HBO TO CANCER:

"To date there is no evidence linking HBO therapy with increased risk of tumor formation. Davis and Hunt in 1988 studied 75 animals treated with HBO and found no increase or progression of tumors in HBO group compared with controls."

There is a phase II clinical trial at UoPenn "...validate the model and assess the efficacy of HB02 therapy for improving outcome. The focus will be to determine the patho-physiological basis for heightened surgical risk among post-radiation head and neck patients and the efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen (HB02) therapy for improving outcome." The study won't be completed until Aug. 2005.

I found it interesting also that at least 2 major CCC's have in house HBO.

Infections are pretty common post Tx because of the low WBC. No infections can be taken lightly but bone infections are probably the more serious. They can lead to Osteoradianecrosis because the capillaries in the bones in the radiated field are compromised and it is harder for the body to fight infections in those areas. There are high powered alternatives to the (peni)cillin classes of antibiotics. Cipro comes to mind. It is good that you are on top of this.

Dani,
I had Hyberbaric Oxygen treatment, 30 of them, to start the process of getting implants in the lower half of my mouth. My doctors told me the same thing that Gary just posted, that there is no proof that HBO "helps" cancer grow. What it did do is make my mouth feel a whole lot better and helped the lymphedema that I still have left on my jaw. If your mother has an infection in her bone I would push her strongly in the direction of Hyperbaric treatment. Maybe showing her doctor some facts on it would help???
Good luck with the decision.
Minnie

There was a story on the news last night about herbal supplements and drug interactions and Cipro was specifically mentioned but I can't remember what supplements were to be avoided. I searched for the story but can't find it.

Ed

I should have mentioned that Cipro is a very powerful antibiotic (if I remember right it was the drug of choice for treating Anthrax). If taking it or anticipating taking it, definitely do the pharmacist consult.

Some herbal supplements are linked to interfering with the efficacy of precription medications, like St. Johns wort. Talk to your pharmacist if you are using supplements with prescription drugs.

Gary,

They did give her Cipro and she hasn't started to take it yet but I am personally very familiar with it because my husband has cronic diverticulis (he has had it since he was 23 doctors are amazed at how young he was when diagnosed and has spent many nights in the hospital once for 10 days straight they thought they were going to have to remove a portion of his colon) They usually give him Cipro, Flagyl and Leviquin and all of those have some nasty side effects for him so I'm going to make sure my mom really gets good information from the pharmacist. She is still finishing out the antibiotics the dentist gave her but they don't seem to killing the infection yet.

I am gathering info on the HBO treatments. I feel better myself today than I have in months because of the scan results. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. This is the first time in many many months that an appointment and results from her doctors have been positive and I feel so good knowing that she is cancer free at this time! Now we just need to fix this infection because it is causing her a lot of pain and discomfort and eating hasn't been too enjoyable for her yet because everything keeps getting stuck there and then she has to get the food out and it gets more irratated that is why I'm going to really push for those HBO treatments so she can heal up and move forward.

As always thanks for the information. You are all sooo wonderful!

Dani

Hi Dani,
just be aware that there is a really strong likelyhood of thrush from this so keep an eye out for it. You might want to suggest getting some diflucan to have just in case.

They had me on Cipro for an infection and I had a huge thrush bloom.

HBO is expensive and some HMOs and insurers don't want to pay for it unless they're pressed.