@ Brian @ David my husband had his ear tested before the Tx began. Past 2 days he is complaining about the hum in the ears, which is not constant.

He had his 1st chemo with 1 radiation and was asked to stay overnight. Doctors put IV then cisplatin and then anti nausea and wanted to monitor the kidneys. His treatment began on the 1st Nov. Tomorrow will be onset of 2nd week.
He has been having nausea from last 4 days though he takes anti nausea pill. Some how he is finding most of the food tastless or blank. Even the sweet stuff does not taste sweet.

Now i am concerned about the humming. also i noticed some swelling on his right lymp node area.

@Bethers0808 you had nausea in the last 4 weeks of radiation? he has experiencing nausea just 3days after chemo.?

Hi Roma,

Everyone r3eacts differently to the chemo. I had nausea from chemo on the very first day, although the antinausea helped. If your husband's antinausea is not helping then maybe you can discuss this with his MO and they can swap it for something else. I would definitely tell the MO about the humming and swelling right away.

MInh

The hearing experience that he is encountering is most likely damage from the Cis. Please inform his MO asap. Perhaps he may be switched to Carboplatin. Depends on the MO. Some I've talked to think Carbo is just as good as Cis and some don't. To my knowledge there is NO research out that that confirms Carbo is equal to Cis in it's effect on this cancer but many here have been switched and I my MO at Moffitt told me that he would switch me but I was not timely on recognizing my damage sound.

The problem with this cancer, whether HPV+ or not, is that it just doesn't always act the same with everyone and the penalty for "guessing" wrong can be the ultimate price so it's easy to throw out recommendations, even extremely educated ones, but we are not the ones that will have to deal with any consequences.

I had the ear problems and still do altho not as bad as before. I don't remember much humming but a lot of a high pitched squealing type of noise. Like everything, it all takes time. My worse with the ears was a constant hearing of my heart that sounded like a construction job from somewhere else until I started paying more attention and figured it out. These things are nerve wracking. Good luck to you both.

Thank you all once again. I have question for you David- how did you manage not to get the peg. Today we have an appoitment with the doctor. we will inquire about the carboplatin, ears, swelling around lymph nodes.
@EzJim my husband said it is not like humming but something like electircal shriek. Something like you are describing.
Thanks you so much once again for giving courage and strength.

My RO at Moffitt doesn't really like them. That was 4 years ago and he still hasn't changed his mind. He says he sees to many patients become life dependent. Add to that I was bucking this whole Tx from the beginning and when he said it was up to me I emphatically said NO. Look the whole Tx boils down to killing the cancer with as little collateral damage as possible. I definitely could have used the PEG during Tx and I got so skinny, so weak, so dehydrated, so everything that they did put a nasal tube in post Tx for about 2 weeks. It made a huge difference and I walked out of my tunnel and fortunately for me I was spared another potential collateral damage.

I wasn't a very smart patient and Brian didn't get me to this site until I had walked out of my tunnel so I didn't have the sage wisdom that this site brings but as it turned out I would do the same thing if I were faced with that decision again. I would also be a tad smarter since I have acquired a great deal of knowledge in my 4 plus years on this site. JMO

David - my son's cancer team also told us at the diagnosis that a peg would be likely but then after they all got together with us, (including my nurse friend and my daughter) they left it up to Paul and he emphatically didn't want one. As treatment went on and it got more and more difficult to eat, I worried because he wasn't taking in enough nourishment no matter what I fixed - until finally I told him if he didn't eat something, right then, I was going to call the doctor and make an appointment to get him a PEG!! That really got him eating again and I was glad that I had that in my arsenal of "encouragement" weapons! Now, I still wonder, though if the Peg may not have made life easier for him. The nasal tube post tx sounds like a life saver to me.

I really don't know why more people aren't offered the nasal tube as a short term solution. Certainly it can't be used by all of us but the ones that can use it should be given that option. I only had to have it in for 2 weeks but I easily could have tolerated it for a month or so. I was still able to shower and swallow and I really didn't go out in public so having it sticking out of my nose didn't bother me at all considering how much it helped my stubborn butt. I have zero post Tx swallowing issues and I know that is partly due to my lack of radiation damage to that area but one could avoid all of the problems I keep reading about associated with the PEG. Again it won't be suitable for everyone but for those like me it could really make a difference.

David my husband is not willing to get the peg. doctors are telling him it would get very difficult in later weeks to swallow. his theory is liquids are going to go through the peg and the same can be done by mouth, by that he means ensure diet. David does the nasal tube function similar to peg tube. Like you said you could shower etc. I am not sure here in princess margaret do they give an option of nasal tube.
Nasal tube is only post Tx.?

I managed without the PEG. It adds to the work and stress but gives you a big head start towards eating again. I did also need a couple of hydration infusions as I became very dehydrated. As Davis said, there is always the nasal tube to bail him out.
All the best,
Rob Jaffe