Hello everyone! I am new to this message board. My father was diagnosed with tounge cancer about a year and a half ago. He did not opt for the operation, however they did take off the tumor on the bottom of his tounge,along with all his teeth in his mouth. He went through two treatments on chemo,which he did for a week straight while staying in the hospital. Also went for 35 days of radiation. Even though it has been a little over a year now...he still will only drink his Ensure. He did have a feeding tube, which they have long taken out. I keep trying to get him to try different things, but he says his mouth is just too dry to swallow. Has anyone else had this problem? And if so, do you know of anything he can do? Foods he can try, etc? He seems to have given up all hope of ever eating again. By the way, he is going to be 70 this month. Thanks for your help.

Hi Bobbie, Yes the dry mouth can be an obstical but it sounds like you need to push him a little harder. Milk works well for me as well as coffee with a lot of cream in it. I can eat almost anything as long as I have plenty milk.

Also you can use a blender to grind up almost anything and make it into a smoothie type drink. Others may argue with me, but a diet entirely of "ensure" type drinks is not complete. He needs the benefit of nutrients found in fruits and vegatables V8 type drinks will help as well as protein foods. E-mail me if you want specific blender ideas (all tested by me )

Hi Bobbi,
My mother had surgery in Feb. 2002. She is now 80. They removed over 50% of her tongue, mandible on right side, teeth on bottom right and floor of mouth was reconstructed. She too has a very dry mouth. She still uses 2 cans of Ensure a day. However she eats a lot of melted ice cream, yogurt and pureed fruit. She has the most difficulty with small things like rice, because it gets stuck in her throat, but she can eat many things if they have been put through a food processor and pureed. She takes Salagen for the dry mouth and that seems to help a little bit. Good luck!

It takes a lot of water at each meal to get everything down for me. That doesn't stop me from eating many things, but I am often full of water before I'm full of food. Without saliva this kind of "wash it down' eating is normal for everyone. Bite and chew a bit of food, wash it down with a drink of water. Canned fruits are really slippery and wet, like canned, cold peaches. They were the first things that I could eat. Soups became my staple after that. In Santa Fe there was a restaurant that specialized in soups and they made them in bulk for all the high-end eateries around town each day. On any given day they had 20 different soups on their chalkboard, and I was a daily regular my first year out from treatment. The variety kept it interesting. Boring is one of the problems with living off of canned nutritional supplements when you don

Thank you so much so the great ideas. Shall I just say the my father is not the easiest person to try to suggest ideas to. He doesn't even like it that I have joined this board, he feels I guess that if we don't talk about his cancer it will all just go away. If they talk about cancer on the news, he hurries and changes the channel. About 5 yrs ago, he had colon cancer. For that they just operated, no chemo or radiation, and he was good as new. But this oral cancer has really gotten him bad. He still smokes a carton a week, which I can't understand when cigs probably put him in this position. But he is my dad, so I have to keep on pushing him. Oh, and now about a week ago he out of the blue started having these morning headaches. He woke up one morning last week and his eye sort of twisted, almost like a lazy eye, and he sees double out of that eye now. So back to the dr we went. Hoping this is just a freak eye problem, however, Friday we are scheduled for a neurologist to get a head scan to make sure nothing is going on. I am married myself with 3 children, but I am the only one my dad has. So, it's just me pushing him all the time and trying to get him to go to drs, try eating, etc. It's hard to help a person when they are not into helping themselves. I am so happy I found this board. Thanks for letting me vent and being so gracious. Please pray for our visit on Friday. In the mean time, has anyone heard of this type of cancer affecting the brain in anyway? Of course, I am thinking the worst already, You know how it is when you look symptoms up online. It scares ya to death!!! :-)
Thanks again.

This sounds difficult at best. Patients that are not interested in improving their own situation respond poorly to being pushed by others in my experience. While he clearly behaves like a person who has been scared by his latest brush with cancer, (changes TV channels when cancer stories come on etc.), obviously he was not scared enough. Continued smoking by those that have had an oral cancer, will likely generate a recurrence, and the treatment options for him will be few, if and when that happens. For the most part radiation is a one-time shot. If he has been a life long smoker, he can get Rx level nicotine inhalers by doctor

Thanks for the info. Now I am really scared that the news the dr gives will not be good news. I know that he has not really tried to help himself, by continuing smoking, but I am very very close to him and hate to go and hear a bad prognosis. I am just almost dreading to go. I am hoping this has nothing to do with any sort of cancer, but also I want to be prepared for the worst. This cancer is a terrible terrible demon!! Oh well, thanks again.

I'm sorry if my post has left you uneasy, I only wish to give you as candid a perspective as I might. Remember that I may be way off base, as I do not have all the facts, and am not speaking as a doctor, only a well-informed person who has been through this. Cancer is indeed a scary thing... in spite of his behaviors let's hope that this all turns out to be something else.

Hi Brian,

My question is how do I find out who on the forum has had a recurrence like my sister? Maybe that could be helpful.

I'm still looking for answers on swelling of the face, to the point where her eyes are closed some days. The fiscular on her neck 3x3. What are people doing to care for this? Who has had a trac and feeding tube put in for over a year and now has taken it out and is able to talk and eat again? Has anyone gone into remission with all of this? Please give me some positive hope that she will be all right. Her history...first tumor on her tongue, treated by RAD only and seeds on her tongue. Second, base of tongue where they had to put in the trac and feeding tube and a treatment of chemo for a year and now by doing a cat scan, because of her swelling, thinking it was a sinus infection???? they found the third tumor on the base of skull. They have started a new clinical trial drug, and decided to add chemo again! Oh, the stress! Does any of this sound like something you know about to anyone. Please let me know, the more I know and find out the more I feel like I'm doing something and getting closer to helping Linda. God Bless ...Flo XoX