Hi All,

I am new here - this is only my second time in this forum - so please forgive me if the questions I ask, have already been answered previously. My husband (53 years old) has stage III squamous cell carcinoma at the base of the tongue (way deep down). He has just finished 8 weeks of out-patient radiation therapy about a week ago - has not opted for a feeding tube during his treatment. My questions are: How long does the mouth sores and pain in the tongue/back of throat last? And is fatigue a common problem after radiation? It seems he gets more exhausted now, then when he did when he was going through therapy. Is this normal? Does this mean anything I should be worried about - or do these things just take time? I am so worried. Sometimes he has some energy (not much though) and other days he just seems to sleep the day away. He eats mostly liquids - ice water, some soda's and milk and maybe (on good days) a few "solids" such as scrambled eggs and applesauce. He is a heavy-set guy who originally started off at 360 lbs but is now down to 290. The dietician said he was losing too much weight too fast. I would think this is due to the basically liquid diet. It's a "catch 22" - he needs food/nutrition to gain strength - but on the other hand - his appetite is greatly diminished and eating is hard to do. He does not want a PEG tube. Any thoughts to all of this? Thanks