HI there.. someone else answered for me so that's great. Best of luck with it. I do offer you many prayers. hugs and luck too.

I am sorry to hear this. I hope the docs get on top of it and that your brother gets the treatment he needs. I'll be sending healing thoughts your brother's way. -Michelle

I havent seen any update. Hope things are coming along. Did they ever test for Epstein Barr virus? Which is common caruse of nasopharyngeal cancer.

Thank you all for Prayers.

Treatment seems helping. We are seeing 10% improvement in his headache. I met his Radiologist, he is cautiously optimistic. H said though this is highly unfortunate, they know where it is and it is contained in one place. So if luck favors us, we could expect positive out come. His left eye ptosis has aalleviated a bit too. But no great progress yet.

I plan to see their HOD tomorrow. There are 4 more RTs left, what should we expect after that? My brother is taking TB meds too, it seems he has contracted TB post treatments.

I hope his headache goes away with that lesion and recover very fast. Drs don't give good pain meds here. He is taking diclofenac+ paracetamol for HA and Xanax .5mg 1 tab for sleep. That is not much for his level of pain+ insomnia+ anxiety.
Thank you for Your prayers and help.

Since there are only 4 more rad treatments left that would explain why there are so many issues happening right now. The next 3 weeks will be very difficult. Rads are cumulative and they build up even after the treatments have ended.

The one thing that can be controlled is good nutrition and hydration. By taking in every single day (for at least the next year) a minimum of 2500 calories and 48 oz of water it will help him to get thru this and to recover. I would ask about getting hydrated in the chemo lab, it will make a huge difference!

Take some time to read thru posts and you will find all the answers to your "whats next" questions. Things like thick ropey mucous will hang around for a couple weeks to be replaced by dry mouth. At this point you probably dont want to get too far ahead of yourself with whats happening next. Focus on what is happening right now and push that nutrition, fluids and pain meds.

Ive never even heard of those pain meds. No wonder he is feeling awful!!! At that point when I was going thru tx I was on 150 mg fentanyl patches. Sometimes the caregiver needs to put on their "nurse hat from heck" and be a squeaky wheel until they get some action. Nobody should be in pain like that!!!! There have been studies done showing how detrimental it is to the patient to be hurting. They will do so much better when they arent in pain. If you need me to find the study and post it for you to print out I will, just say the word. Tell those doctors that they MUST do something to help him handle the pain. It really is inhumane for his doctors to allow him to suffer. This really ticks me off when I hear of an OC patient suffering in pain when those doctors have no clue how bad it can be and they have the capability to change that but they dont. GGGRRRRR!!!! Speak up and tell them he needs the fentanyl patch and he should be starting out with a 50 mg and if that doesnt work they need to move it up to 100mg. It takes 24 hours to kick in so if you get some action tomorrow he could be feeling better on Tuesday. Do not take NO for an answer.

Good luck!!!!!

Oh PMB you poor thing!

Ask for a referral to a pain management team/specialist - diclofenac and paracetamol are not even close to good enough! For the US readers this is Voltaren and Tylenol.

The treatment for TB interacts with a lot of other medications and it sounds a lot like your doctor is not confident enough to prescribe serious pain killers when your brother is also on TB medication. I agree with Christine, now is the time to make a fuss. Your brother should not be allowed to go through this on the most basic of pain medications and you need impress upon the doctor that current medications are not adequate. And don't let your brother underplay the pain he is in. Try and get him to agree that on this occasion, when he gets in front of the doctor, he should not be "brave". I remember after a hour of discussion at home with my Alex, we agreed that his pain was severe enough to warrant a request to escalate his pain medication to the next level. When the doctor asked how he was managing he replied that he could handle it... aarrggghhh!

I have come to the conclusion that this is something that men do, for no reason that I understand other than pain tolerance appears to be attached to sense of worth somehow

Is it possible your brother thinks that to admit to pain is a sign of weakness or failure? If so, maybe it would help if you reassure him that others in his position need something opiate based to even touch the pain. Some possible options to ask the doctor about are fentanyl, oxycodone, or morphine to see if any of these are available ?

They have agreed to add Tramadol 100 mg BID. They want to reserve Morphine for later stages.

I was devastated when his rad oncologist told me that prognosis is not very good for such type of early recurrence. They are not giving any Chemo right now, at the end of the treatment they may refer us to an Oncologist. He is loosing vision in his left eye too. Everything from his left eye seems so hazy. So he may loose his left eye. He is already struggling with left eye ptosis and severe headache on left side.