Happy Holidays!
Tell your RO about the blood, which could be from anything like dried blood from your surgery or irritation from any sharp texured foods you ate, if any. Some feel the effects of radiation right away, some take a few days, and most after the 1st or 2nd week, so keep that in mind in the future as you proceed to try and eat softer, less acidic, and non spicy foods as not to irritate the mouth. You can use a salt water/baking soda mixture to rinse your mouth throughout the day. If the salt burns, cut it out. I also rinsed with aloe vera juice too, distilled type, which has healng properties, and glutamine powder, which repairs tissue, and when the mucus got thick, I rinsed with selzer water, papaya or pineapple juice. You have an arsenal of meds. The others to get may be magic mouthwash or similar, Fetynol patch if pain persists and find the others are not working well, and is at the ladder as far as pain relief goes, and Mucinex, Robotusim, for mucus.
I used biotene toothpaste for dry mouth, biotene mouthwash, and biotene drymouth gel at night, but any plain non flavored fluoride tooth paste is good, using a soft brush, along with no alcohol mouth wash, which dries the mucus membrane, and flossing, all after each meal, and before bed. You might want to use a humidifier at night to keep the mucus membrane from drying out, sleep on an incline to prevent mucus build/up and acid reflux, and drinking water before going to bed to keep the mouth moist, and kept handy for drinking bedside. As you can see, oral care is very important. And helps prevent Mucocitis, which most get, or reduce severity, and to watch out for secondary bacterial, fungal, and viral infections from mucostis, which are treated with different medications. Chemoradiation treatment will compound these toxicities, than either alone, and is like adding 2Gy to the radiation.
As far as smoothies, I just used canned Glucerna via the tube, after the 2nd week being I was just too tired to make anything, plus milk, sugar burned my mouth, and even have a juicer, and vitamix, but there are plenty recipes for smoothies, protein shakes, soups, pur�ed vegetables, etc. Whatever you do, keep doing the swallow exercises as instructed, and try to eat by mouth as long as possible, and ensuring to get adequate nutrition, protein, hydration, and rest.
