A few things occur to me.

1. What sort of painkillers is he on? Is he constipated? Most painkillers will make you constipated and that might be contributing to the feeling that he doesn't want more food or water. Also, some pain meds can themselves make some people nauseated.

2. If he's really really tired, this alone can do it. I am finishing the second round of raduation in a year (different place than the first but still) and I'm really really tired a lot of the time. When I'm woken up, I often feel like you sometimes feel when woken from a very deep sleep (stage IV sleep); groggy and woozy and even a bit queasy and it takes me about 10-15 minutes to come out of that. So waking him and trying to push food/fluids on him right away might not be the best thing. Maybe give it 15 minutes or so.

3. When I was going through rad, the thick mucous alone made me kind of constantly queasy at a low level. I had to learn to take food and fluids through the tube regardless of that and I had to take them very slooowly or I got sick.

The bottom line is if he doesn't get enough fluids and nutrition, eventually he will end up in the hosptial getting them via IV. It might be worth someone reminding him of that. It's a battle to get stuff down when you are queasy or constipated all the time, which I pretty much was, but the alternative is not pretty either.

Good luck to both of you. Nelie