I went to the dentist to get a cleaning and flouride trays made. Since my cancer is in my cheek and roof of my mouth, Im in a great deal of pain. My dentist has given me what I consider a miracle. He gave me something he calls magic mouthwash. It's made of 30% benadryl, 30% mylanta, and 30% Lidocaine. After trying it my mouth instantly felt relief. Has anyone else heard of this or used it? If not I hope you will ask your doctor to give you a prescription for it.

It is a common concoction at treatment facilities around the country with small variations in formulation. During the worst of the mucocitis sores it is a life saver. Lidocaine is the injectable anesthetic commonly used in dental offices when you get a tooth filled.

Hi Christine,

My fathers cancer was also in the roof of his mouth. Lidocaine was a lifesaver for him pre surgery. It provided him enough relief to be able to eat and speak. His was straight, not mixed with anything. He swabbed it on the affected areas. In some ways it provided more relief than the narcotic pain relievers and the relief was instant. He started out by using Orajel and when he realized how helpful that was he asked his doctor if there was something similar available via prescription.

I'm glad you have found something that provides some relief.

Joy

There's variations on it. Mine had lidocaine, morphine and benedryl.

Mine was similar and it was very helpful in reducing the pain in eating. My Oncoligy doctor prescribed.

I wish I had known about this earlier. My dentist wouldnt even do any work because I hurt so bad I couldnt open my mouth for him. Now tomorrow, my fouride trays will be made. I have been thru severe pain ever since I had my biopsy a few weeks ago. This has been such a relief not to hurt so much, all I kept thinking was that its going to get alot worse too.

I'm sure others have tried viscous lidocaine? John was given an rx for it and he tried it optimistically three times w/absolutely no results--very disappointing! He's just using gobs of Orajel to what is the worst area so far, the right side of his tongue, although the throat is catching up fast. Norco helps some, but he's just completed week three and by all accounts here things are only going to get worse in terms of pain.

Yes, it so frustrating how what works wonders for some, does nothing for others. Like John, I was so excited about getting the "Magic Mouthwash" - which quickly turned to big time disappointment as it made me vomit each and every time I used it. It seemed so wasteful to throw out that big bottle back in 07, made even worse when they tried a new formulation of magic mouthwash with just the lidocaine and benadryl, still unable to tolerate it. So I had to throw 2 big bottles out in the end.
Meanwhile, almost all the other patients in the waiting room for radiation had tremendous results with the magic mouthwash. go figure

What I have been on forever has 3 narcotics in it too. It kills the pain for awhile and lets em get to sleep.

what three narcotics would those be?

This is too bad, I really liked the viscous lidocaine, the only drawback I saw that it only lasted for 15-30 min. I guess one needs to try this to see if it works. The magic mouthwash that I was given just burned like hell! Note these are made locally according to different formulation.

M

I was one that seemed to have a bad reaction to anything. The worst part was I developed what I'll call a gag reflex towards the latter stages and anything I put in my mouth made me gag which usually led to tossing my cookies. The only way I could stop it was to swallow whatever it was that I needed to and the stand over the sink and close my eyes and hold my mouth shut until the urge went away. That did work quite often.

I have had outstanding results with viscous lidocaine. Cannot take water or nutrition without it. (Am living 100% on Ensure equivalent, sipped via straw, alternating sips with water.)

Add'l note: I squeeze a few ml of viscous lidocaine into about 1.5 oz water, shake thoroughly. One swish--held in mouth for maybe 20 sec--typically produces sufficient numbing. I swish more if I need to. For me, the stuff is a lifesaver. Btw, mixing and using lido is easy if you can find a 2-oz container and lid of the type used in many salad bars for dressing etc. when doing takeout.

ari,

Get Carnation Instant Breakfast VHC as it has 560 calories in the same small can so by swallowing the same amount you get way more calories. You have to order it thru a pharmacy like Walgreens or CVS or perhaps Wal Mart but you don't need a prescript but make sure it's the VHC with 560 calories. You need perhaps 3000 cals a day to help your recovery.

Were you tested for HPV?

David, thanks for the tip regarding Carnation Instant Breakfast VHC, 560 cal. I will follow up on that. I have been using CVS's house brand Ensure knockoff, "Essentials Plus", 350 cal, $7.49 per six-pack -- comes out to $1.25/serving.

Because it's so hard to intake any nutrition, I have been taking barely enough to maintain weight: in my case, 4 cans/day = 1400 calories, plus 1/2 gal water per day. That's about as much as I can choke down. It would obviously be a benefit if I could get more calories for the same effort.

Regarding HPV: Because my other risk factors are so low, my oncologist and radiation oncologist both strongly suspect HPV. However, no test was ordered because the result was deemed irrelevant to treatment decisions, therefore not cost-justified.

ari,

I get tired of our doctors deciding what is or is not important to us, the patient. It may not have made a difference in your treatment but it definitely may make a difference in how you view your chances of a recurrence since studies have concluded that HPV+ SCC responds better to Tx and therefore has a better chance that it won't recur. This helped me mentally and as far as I am concerned the mental aspect of cancer is 50% of our battle.

On another front that I have and will continue to fight for is the more SCC patients that are tested for HPV, the better it will be understood and that can only be a good thing for both HPV+ and HPV- SCC patients. For all the untested patients that would have tested positive for HPV, they will be lumped into the HPV- pool and will taint that pool's conclusions which could never be a good thing for HPV- patients with the current understanding of the differences between the 2 types of SCC.

I fought Moffitt 3 years ago to get tested and I had hoped by now HPV testing would have become standard especially for those that fit the current mold for HPV, which according to your Signature Line, you do.

I have watched my pharmiscist at rite aid mix MM and it sure does take awhile tomake the formula. 1st time he mixed it he had to call around different druggist to find out the trick to it.

We spoke to our Medical Onoco and he said that the rinses for the mouth somethings make the muscus in the mouth much worse. He said that it's better to stick with the baking soda. Is this true or should be try some of the mouth wash discribed above?
Pat

Kavi is no longer with us. I terminated his membership. He is neither a survivor or caregiver, qouted others inappropriately and posted non-relevant links. This IS a moderated site!

ari, get GNC Weight Gainer 1850 if you really want to jump start.. 1850 calories per serving. You mix it yourself and rite aid ahd it on sale for 75% off.

You have a good point, David. There should be some kind of healthcare study focused on HPV and OC cancer onset. In other words, a major study should pay for HPV testing of people who fit the profile but are only "suspected". By statistically sampling the "suspected" pool, a mathematical model could be developed to predict HPV involvement across the entire population of OC patients for whom other risk factors don't seem to apply. This study would reveal the full extent (such as it may be) of HPV in OC oncogenesis.

To advocate for (i.e., cost-justify) such a study, a substantial public health benefit would have to be clearly delineated. I don't think feeling good about one's treatment would be sufficient. (And I don't mean to belittle that benefit, it has lifted my spirits as it did yours. I just don't think it alone is sufficient in a cold-eyed cost/benefit analysis.)

Could knowledge of broad HPV involvement (our hypothesis) be used to reduce the incidence of oral cancer, and thus public health costs? Possibly. It would depend on a public education campaign aimed at younger, sexually active adults, and other policy choices.

What would be the desired behavior changes? (1) Reduce oral-genital contact. (But what a loss of pleasure!) (2) Have partner tested for HPV before having oral sex. (Not very spontaneous.) (3) More aggressive testing and treatment of HPV among all women.

The focus has to be first with the Gardasil vaccination of BOTH pre sexually active males and females. This must be made a part of all school entry requirements just like Hep C and then the focus should migrate towards the studies currently being done to boost the immune systems' response to the current HPV+ population.

If Gardasil's effective prevention rate is accurate and society will accept HPV as an adversary then we can eliminate the oncogenic strains of HPV currently known in a few decades.

While we can reduce gradually the reservoir of the virus in the population, complete eradication after vaccination programs will be on a time line that should be looked at by a generation, not by decades. Use polio as the example.....

For those really interested in all this I recommend that you read Polio, and American story, by David Oshinsky. (Please buy it through the OCF Amazon link and save money while helping OCF) This will give you a really good perspective on how vaccines are developed, the governmental issues associated with mass application of them, the side effects and adverse events, and ultimately the defeat of a killer disease over generations.