He rinses with a solution of baking soda and salt, mixed according to a recipe given to us by the MO. Also, he has recently tried an OTC product called Oasis mouth rinse. It helps with moisture but he still has the sour taste. I'll have him open widde and check for spots. Thanks for the advice

Amy, I'm curious to hear how John is doing with the Erbitux. Tom has had two infusions and has the rash in full bloom. He's self-conscious about it, but agrees that as far as side effects go, it's not so bad. Also, I read about John's reaction to Ativan. My dad had a similar reaction when he was treated for pancreatic cancer. The hospice folks said that when patients don't tolerate Ativan, it effectively rules out a whole "family" of pain killers (with similar ingredients, I guess) and after that, he went straight to morphine.

Joyce

CG to Tom dx SCC 5/06; right neck lymph nodes removed, dx right tonsil and tonsillectomy 6/06; rad and chemo started 7/06; treatment COMPLETED 9/06 33x rad; Erbitux (8x); Cisplatin (2);