The very first thing you can do with him is to eat all his favourite foods as after chem and radiations, it will take a while for food to taste the same. There will be taste changes — my husband who loved jello couldn’t have any because it tasted metallic. The same happened to coffee. The mouth sores that come from radiation will make eating tough for a while.

The other thing which I did was to create a little corner in the sitting room where he could doze and watch TV. I put the stuff that he might need, e.g. water, moisturizing lotion, tissues, next to the chair so that he wouldn’t be tempted to stay in bed all day. The patient gets very tired after radiation and some might just prefer not to get up at all, but that’s no good. They should move around.

Chemo and radiation take a lot out of the patient. My husband was very strong and tough as well and he resented being reduced to relying on others’ help. I would suggest a very good chat with him prior to treatment starting so that he would at least know what to expect.

You might also consider having a humidifier in the bedroom for the dry mouth and maybe a Waterpik for the gunk that develops as a result of radiation.

I would strongly suggest that you read as much of the patients’/caregivers’ posts on the forum as you can so you would know what might happen.