Stephanie,

My nutritionist gave me a product called GlutoSolve that is sold at the oncology pharmacy at the Harold Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UTSouthwestern in Dallas. Is is glutamine and the purpose is to promote healing throughout the digestive tract by stimulating eppitheleal (sp) cells which exist anywhere there is mucous membrane. It helped my mouth, throat and on down as it got raw from radiation. The doctor approved it for me but you may want to run it by your doctor or nutrionist first as I am not medically trained or qualified to prescribe this over the counter product. If the doctor/nutrionist agrees it could help, I would be glad to mail some to you. I have several boxes (one week for twice daily) that I was wondering what to do with. Just let me know. You can also get the Miracle Mouthwash stuff that has lidocaine, benedryl and maalox, I believe, that you just swish around and it numbs the sores in the mouth. Your mom is halfway there and even though it gets tough, she is on other side of the hill now.

We went to Japan for a week to see relatives when the kids had spring break. I do not know if I was up to it only 5 months post radiation. When I got there I could tell it was time! I gained almost 12 pounds for the first time in 7 months and my throat and mouth felt better than they had for about that long. It was a long ride on the plane (14 hours there, 11 back) but the excitement really built as we were getting ready to go and it was a wonderful time. I had a PET scan a couple of days after getting back and if it was bad news, we had done everything we wanted to do and saw family for perhaps the last time. The good news when we got back was just a little icing on the great cake we already had!

Ed