so radiation has side effects, but the affect everyone differently. Some people get all of them, some people get none of them and some people are in the middle. Also time wise of when they happen is different with everyone as well.

The side effects he will almost certainly experience is loss of hair in the area radiated, sores in mouth/throat, thick saliva, dry mouth, peeling/sunburnt looking skin in radiated area.

For these there isn't much you can do about hair loss. I lost it in the back of my head and i just got my hair trimmed so it stopped falling out so much. Sores in mouth/throat, well for sores in the mouth, they suggest you use water, salt, baking soda mix and it helps with relieving some of the pain from the sores, helps make your saliva not so acidic, and also helps thin out mucous for a little while. Thick saliva (sometimes referred to as mucous) starts when your salivary glands functioning starts to slow down. When they radiate your mouth, it almost always affects your salivary glands below your tongue, and they start to dry up and that's when you get the dry mouth, then thick saliva. Anyways for that they do sometimes say mucinex helps, it's a over the counter medication, but can also be prescribed, otherwise if he keeps drinking as much water as he can and rinsing with the rinse it helps too, but nothing clears it up completely. I was nauseated the last 4 weeks of radiation, but everyone is different.

He will also experience different levels and types of pain from radiation, but the doctors should be monitoring him and helping him manage the pain with medications. Common pain meds used during radiation are fetanyl patch, percoset, oxycodone, and dilated, but it depends on the doctor and what they prefer to use or think will work best.

As for disability. I had my surgery in april and in may as soon as I could get an appointment, I applied for social security disability and social security insurance. I found out around end of august that I was approved, but I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork before that and after I applied.

He should apply for both ssi and ssdi because ssi won't start for 5 months, they will start paying the 6th month but it will technically be 5th month payment. ssi will pay usually a lump sum of money to cover the months before ssdi paid for, but it's a lesser amount. I got my ssi end of august/early september and then started receiving disability october 1st.

Usually a social worker in the hospital can help you get the ball rolling on these and other applications, like for medical insurance programs if you don't have any and stuff like that. But if you are like me, and the social worker didn't even stop in to see you while you were in the hospital, then you can call the social security office near you and set up an appointment to do the application, or can do it over the phone sometimes.

I hope this helps a little bit at least. Hope the appointment today went smoothly and you and bob got more info and feel a little better about what will be happening here and soon. I know once I knew what was going to happen I felt better a little bit, it was better then waiting to find out.