Good morning - your husband probably should get fluoride trays made by the dentist to help protect his teeth during radiation as radiation can do a lot of damage to teeth. If possible start using them daily now because as he gets into later treatments it may be too painful to use them.

As David said above, start eating now, and eat a lot, ie try to get fat. Husband WILL lose weight in treatment, that's almost a given. The problem is as treatment proceeds the taste buds will likely go and when food has no taste, the appetite goes away. There were a lot of days I would have been content to eat nothing. I didn't hurt, I just wasn't hungry. Don't eat for a couple of days and the weight loss can become excessive quick.

A rule of thumb from my nurses, once you lose 10% of your body weight they put you on a PEG feeding tube. You don't want that. The nurses will weigh him at least once a week, they will be watching his weight closely, and from personal experience even the loss of one or two pounds in a week will make them fuss. I had several weeks where I lost 4-5 pounds, that got me fussed at a lot.

Cancer is hyper-metabolic, the disease is consuming a LOT of the calories you put in as food, which means those calories are not available for husbands normal metabolism. The treatments make it even worse, between the disease and the treatment there's very little left over for him, so he has to eat enough to satisfy all 3 demands. He literally needs to eat like a pig. Don't worry, I will safely bet you a dollar he won't gain a single pound in treatment regardless of how much he eats.

Now, let's be realistic. We can sit here and tell you all day long to eat, eat, eat. But that may or may not happen, it depends on your husband. I was a plump little dumpling at start of treatment, so I had lots of extra weight I could afford to lose, so weight loss just got me fussed at, it didn't put me in the hospital for mal-nutrition. Had I been skinny and trim weight loss would have been much worse for me. I'm NOT telling you to let your husband skip on eating, I AM telling you that if he is a little plump and he misses a meal or two, for you not to freak out.

Most people recommend you start treatment with no dental problems. If he needs a filling, get it done prior to treatment. If your dentist is on top of things they will likely recommend he get a bottle of chlorhexidine gluconate (another name is Peridex) and start using it at least once daily. Treatment is a terrible attack on your teeth, it creates an environment conducive to tooth decay. Peridex helps provide an environment not conducive to tooth decay. Don't use it too much as I think it stains the teeth from overuse.

That's enough for now, there will be more later. Digest all this stuff and start thinking of the other questions you want to ask. Like David said above, ask anything, there are no taboo subjects when it comes to cancer.

Get yourself a spiral notebook to write all this down in, there is too much to learn to try to remember it all. Make a list of questions for the doctor, for the nurses, for the forum.

Hang on, this is going to be a wild ride. We will help get you through this.

Tony


Tony, 69, non-smoker, aerobatics pilot, bridge player/teacher, avid dancer (ballroom, latin, swing, country)

09/13 SCC, HPV 16, tonsillectomy, T2N0.
11/13 start rads, no chemo
12/13 taste gone, dry mouth,
02/14 hair slowly returning
05/14 taste the same, dry sinuses, irrigation helps.
01/15 food taste about 60% returned, dry sinuses are worse in winter.
12/20 no more sinus problems, taste pretty good