Hi Wayne,

It was tough for John to get through the radiation but, as others have said, the one day at a time approach worked for him. Also, in his case, he was not too bad for about a week and half and then his throat and mouth got very sore. We were so lucky that they had installed a PEG tube because when the swallowing became difficult he was still able to maintain his nutrition most days.

One thing I always try to point out is to remember to ask for laxatives/stool softeners if they began to give you heavy pain killers like codeine or morphine. John suffered unnecessarily from very painful constipation near the end of the second week.

It seemed like John got a lot relief from the seemingly small things like rinsing regularly with water and baking soda, applying warm compresses of lightly salted water to his red skin, and finding a comfortable place to sit when he was feeding through the peg tube.

Reaching the halfway mark was a big help emotionally. If you haven't already, it would be good to direct your wife to this site because there may be times that she can get some very good answers to questions- especially when you're in the thick of the treatment.

Mary