Hi everyone,
I took my mom to the doc and its confirmed that the pain in her feet, legs and fingertips is a side effect of chemo, something called Neurpoathy. Evidently all of the other meds she was taking masked the discomfort, hence the delayed diagnosis. But now that she's been taken off of some meds (depession, morphine, etc), the neuropathy made its presence clear. The situation is that the drug used to treat neuropathy dries the hell out of her already dry, radiated mouth. Salagen doesn't seem to help. Accupuncture helped prior to the medication prescribed for the Neuropathy, but not anymore. Has anyone found a med that seemed to work better than Salagen? I'd really appreciate any ideas. It seems that were getting back into a situation where each doc has another drug they want to give her. I know their intentions are good, but some of these drugs (namely for neuropathy) have had a unpleasant physical and psychological side effects.


Mom's caregvr. DDS failed to dx 01/03. Dx Stg IV SCC 05/03. Induct. chemo, IMRT, 5FU, H, Iressa, Neck disect, radiation. Dad's caregvr. Dx 01/04 Ext. Stg SCLC. Mets to liver/bone 08/04. Died 11/12/04. Mom tongue CA dx 06/13, hemiglossectomy (80% removed) 08/13. Clean margins and nodes, but PNI. 6/15/15: Tongue CA at base of remnant tongue. Declined further tx; hospice.
Died 10/13/15. What a long and difficult journey.