Hello all,

When my husband had his first chemo infusion a few weeks ago, I noticed the skin on his face, head and everywhere that wasn't burnt from radiation started to turn white/grey during the infusion. As he sat there, his color came back. Today, he had his second to last dose (next week will be the last) and he's running about the house now doing things and his skin has lost its color again. He looks very, very sickly. Is this normal? I've tried to Google this symptom and am coming up empty handed. When either of us mention any symptom to the doctors that he's had over the past few weeks, they simply nod and say "uh huh" as if they've heard the same story, day in and day out (which I'm sure they have). His blood count came back fine today (according to them). Also, the neck mass isn't going down at all. He'll be finishing up radiation as well as chemo soon and the mass is at least the same size as when he started. We are both burnt out (I think me more than him) and of course we're both hoping that this one 7 week treatment will bring him back to good. Any experiences with the white/grey head/face during Cisplatin? Also, when did your/your person you were caring for start seeing a change in the lymph node bump (if applicable)? Thank you for any information you can provide

My cancer wasn't visible from the outside, so I can't speak to that, but I can say that the radiation continues to do its thing for some time after the official treatments stop. It's one reason the recovery time seems so long for us patients, and can surprise us with taking longer to bounce back than we think. However, it's definitely something the doctor should be addressing with you, and hopefully they will give you more specific information for your husband's specific tumor.

My experience is sometimes the swelling post radiation may be due to the body reacting to the radiation. So, before the neck mass was the tumor and now the “mass” may be swelling. I remember my husband’s neck was quite “full” for a while after his treatment. He also had Cisplatin, but, honestly, he had such a strong reaction to the radiation and Cisplatin that I didn’t notice if he had lost color.