My husband was diagnosed with Nasopharynx cancer at Christmas. He has completed the treatment 35 Rad 3 Cisplatin Peg Tube. He turned 50 at his second round of chemo. His last chemo/rad was 2/19/08. I have been reading this forum for several weeks and want to express my thanks to all of you for you thoughtful advice and knowledge. I havent found many people with nasopharynx cancer and was curious to see if anywone suffered from the same (rare) cancer as my husband. My biggest problem right now is that since he finished treatment he has been more grumpy and doesnt want to try eating. He stopped eating about 4 weeks ago and only sips water. I got him to eat soup yesterday but today he doesnt want any. Should I push or give him more time?

THank You!!

I am not familiar with his type of cancer, but I do know nutrition is VERY important to the recovery and healing process for the damage caused by radiation and chemo. My nutritionist set a goal for me to take in a minimum of 2,700 calories a day. Is he using his PEG tube at all? From the middle of my treatment until about 2 months afterwards I was using my peg tube. I consumed my calories through Nestle Carnation Instant Breakfast VHC which had 560 calories per 8 oz can. I poured 2 of those cans down my peg tube along with water for hydration 3 times a day. At first my nutritionist ordered it for me and had my insurance company pay for it. Let us know if you need more inforation about this.

If he is not listening to you, can you get the doctors to talk to him? Could you tell us more about his diet and what side effects he is having from the radiation and chemo?

Our experience with the radiation/chemo treatments was that it destroys taste (which will come back gradually) and with the pain eating and swallowing, and loss of appetite you just have no desire to eat. It takes about 6 weeks after treatment before the mucocitis and thick mucous abates. I remember feeling so relieved to have the treatments over and anticipating daily improvements, which of course didn't happen because of the continued effect of the treatments. We had been told this but I guess we just wanted this difficult time to pass fast. Keep your husband swallowing every day as much as he possibly can and make sure he gets whatever calories he needs through the PEG tube until he is able to take more orally. If he needs some pain medication to help with the pain of swallowing you could crush it, mix with water and put through the PEG. My husband did the same thing i.e. only sips of water and for a couple of weeks not even that, taking everything through the PEG. This may have contributed to his continued difficulty with swallowing, he was never able to get to even soft foods. Is your husband understanding the importance of continuing to swallow in his recovery? Is depression an issue? I guess I would advise encouraging every day and having different things available he can try but don't drive yourself crazy when he declines your offers. I assume you are working with a dietician at your cancer centre. Good luck and keep posting, there many good people with first hand knowledge on this forum to help you.

He has about 3-5 ensures a day 40 oz of Gatorade/water mixed per day. He was sweating a lot but that has calmed down. He usually listens to me but he just seems apprehensive to food and swallowing. Some depression since treatment has stopped. He has some mouth sores but he has had those all along. Of course the pain is managed with medication and he is starting to decrease the medication.

His friends from work held a benefit for cancer research in his name last night, we went and it did lift his spirits.

Is he using Ensure or Ensure Plus? Ensure Plus tastes much better and has about 360 calories vs the 200 in Ensure. David recommends the Carnation VHC with 560 calories for the same amount of swallows. Have you gotten some meds from the doctor for deperssion? If not mention it.

Take care,
Eileen

If his last Tx was only Feb 19, he is probably feeling as bad if not worse than he's ever felt as most of us suffered the worst during the 2 to 3 weeks post Tx. Many of us even ended up in the hospital during this time...it's just bad news. That said, it is extremely important for him to get as many calories as possible in his body. Tell him to forget what it taste like, it's just important to get it to stay in his body.

Where exactly was his rad aimed?