Gary
I have been stressing the oral/mouth cleaning process but he has been through so much that I fell it falls on deaf ears. Interesting part is that my Dad was a complete teeth freak before this second round with oral cancer. He would brush, floss and rinse many times daily. I think the thinks I eat nothing by mouth anymore so why should I worry about my teeth. We all know this is not the way it works but I understand why he feels that way as he misses food so much. Our family doctor was not positive with me during our last conversation. She said she has had patients like my Dad mostly stroke patients and they continue to aspirate and then continue to get pneumonia and that it eventually leads to death. I could not believe that she said that to me. She maintains that he will be on oxygen for the rest of his life. He is walking around the block every day and trying to get better. However, between the PEG and the 24 hr oxygen, I since that he has about given up. His radiation oncologist who we really liked said we need to see the ENT surgeon as this is a surgical issue and I wanted to slap him. I contend that both of them had a hand in this once tried to reconstruct him back together and the other fried him repeatedly. Let alone through the chemo from the oncologist in there who zapped his immune system! Any advice anyone wants to throw my way would be greatly appreciated. Does aspiration pneumonia cause permanent diseased lungs??