While his treatment may be over, at least for me, this was where I was most surprised by things.... I was actually starting to feel worse not better. The effects of the radiation are accumulative, and just as the first couple of weeks are not that bad, the radiation is still doing damage for a significant period after the end of treatments, and things are still turning into mucocitis and phlegm. Everything that you are describing that he is going through is in the realm of normal side effects for what he has been subjected to. What you and he may not be prepared for is the length of time these things hang around. MDACC told me to expect a month of recovery for every week of radiation, and they were not far off. That was to get past the sores, mucous etc. That did not mean that at that point life returned to normal. I was underweight, weak, depressed, still had a routine occurrence of Candida every few weeks, and I was fairly well addicted to some hefty painkillers. There were many more months of issues before I was even close to normal, but certainly, not even then, like before treatment.

If he had field radiation and not IMRT, the side effects and issues will be around longer, as more tissues have been damaged by the treatments. I am really surprised at any doctor telling him that it will get better in just over a week. My own experience was relatively normal, and if you read others posts here, you will find that months, not weeks is typical. Given that longer time frame, it is possible that his nutritional deficiencies will pose a greater problem than his doctor is planning for, and as Gary has pointed out, hydration could also be an issue. Your father should be keeping a log of everything that he eats or drinks every day. That way someone besides him can be monitoring the whole thing, and catching any issues before they become huge problems. Read the labels on the cans of cold fruit, Ensure, or what ever, and count the calories and nutritional information getting a total for the day. Be particularly aware of not only calories, but protein. He definitely isn