Hi - My husband has been a survivor for 14 years - he had a carcinoma of left tonsil and was treated with surgery, radiation and chemo. He has survived no syliva - no taste and had a terrible time trying to swallow anything all these years but he has come through shining! We moved from South Africa to Canada 9 years ago and made contact straight away with an ENT. so he could keep track of his throat - he has had his throat stretched a few time as it is so difficult to swallow. He had a terrible tooth ache a few months ago and the dentist said he couldn't see anything - went home and the pain kept coming snd going - with his history - we decided to see the ENT. he didn't seem concerned at all but ordered a CT scan - it came back with something. He did a biopsy straight away in his office and sent us home to wait for the results and ordered an MRI- we waited and waited for both. Eventually we got both and were told he had cancer in his jaw it is wrapped around his jaw bone and causing him to not be able to open his mouth very wide and is in terrible pain as it is growing and pushing on all the nerves. He is booked for surgery 9 august and is on the emergency waitlist. he has to have trach, neck disection, mandibular resection and fibula flap He is so very sick - he has a fentonyl patch and endocet for pain he has ondansetron for nausea but it doesn't work - he has tried gravol it works for a while sometimes. Does anyone have any advice on what to do? the poor chap has a couple of good days - then he vomits and vomits for a 3 days - this is not helping him - we have been to emerg last weekend they gave him an iv for a couple of hours - and sent us home - is this normal? Last time he went through this - he wasn't constantly sick. I am worried he is losing to much weight ( he is only 119 pounds) Anyone have a suggestion on how to get him to eat - he dosn't want anything - he tries the meal replacement drinks,and chicken soup but when he is sick like this nothing works. Sorry for the essay - but I need some help! Thanks - I am so happy I found this group - the doctors need to send you here for support! I will suggest they put a link on a notice board at the hospital. It is so important to feel you have some support in these sad times. thanks in advance - I just know you will have some good advise!

Welcome to OCF. I have had a similar surgery almost 1 year ago. Its a difficult surgery and is very long. Mine was aprox 10 hours. The recovery is also long. If I were in your position, I would call the doc now and tell them everything you just told us. Your husband should have a feeding tube. This type of surgery makes it impossible to eat for several weeks. I was kept asleep for 3 weeks after the surgery and when I woke up I was not able to eat.

When nasuea hits, if it isnt controlled it wont matter if there is a steak dinner or a bowl of jello in front of him. If he is sick, he wont keep anything down. I put a link for my chocolate peanut butter milk shakes below and also a link for easy to eat foods. For the shakes, go to the health food store and get some high protein powder or the dry carnation instant breakfast powder to add calories and protein. The shakes I make are very high calorie. I hope this helps.


http://oralcancersupport.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=115136#Post115136

http://oralcancersupport.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=94621#Post94621

What do they contribute his nausea to? Never heard of anyone getting nauseated from this cancer BEFORE radiation and chemo. They need to address it regardless but I also think they need to determine it's root cause.

I would be suspect of the pain meds causing this type of nausea.

I am sure that it would be a hard choice to decide between pain or nausea but perhaps this is something to look at.

DavidCPA above will probably comment on this issue..I think he finally got off of the pain meds because of complications.

Deb

Sue, so sorry to hear of your husband's travails, and I know it must be agony for you too.

The only thing that helped me after three solid months of 24 hour nausea was Compazine. I believe it's an older line medication, and my oncologist prescribed it finally after I'd tried several more recent drugs, which didn't help much.

Please keep us posted.

Courage.
David 2