Welcome to OCF! Was your mother diagnosed with oral cancer and is being treated with radiation? If so Im uncertain why she would be on antibiotics unless she had some sort of infection. Please understand our group is made up of caregivers and patients/survivors of oral cancer. We are not medical professionals, we lack years of schooling and training, we also do not know the patients background or test results. That said, its not always easy for us to comment or make suggestions but we will always do our very best to try helping as much as possible. Im going to assume your mother has oral cancer which is why she is receiving radiation treatments, so I can help answer your questions.
The link below explains radiation for oral cancer patients. At the bottom of the page click on the link for radiation side effects to learn more. Most of us who had radiation have at one point or another during our treatments experienced mouth sores (hurt like heck!!), temporarily lost our voices, had significant difficulty eating and drinking, problems swallowing and excessive thick mucous.
The most important thing to focus on during your mothers radiation treatments is her intake. Without paying careful attention to this, she can quickly become dehydrated and malnourished losing too much weight in a short time period, making her feel even worse. Every single day she should be taking in a minimum of 2500 calories and 48 - 64 oz of water. If she is unable to do this then her doctors must be made aware and a feeding tube may be in her near future. The doctor can write an open prescription for extra hydration to be given. After a couple bags of IV, she will feel much better. This can be done several times a week if the prescription is written for it.
Pain management is also important. No patient should have to suffer in pain. The doctors can prescribe pain meds to help her feel a little better. OC treatments can be brutal and the patient can be in considerable pain. Most of us took some pretty strong pain meds during rads. There is also something called magic mouthwash, its prescription to help patients with mouth sores. This will temporarily numb her mouth so she can try to eat something.
Main OCF pages-- Radiation Hope this helps. Best wishes!
