Hi all,

I am new to this forum.My mother she had oral cancer and she had 33 radiations and 4 chemos. Its 6weeks post her treatment.She still have darkened skin around her neck and cheeks.what can be done,to get her normal skin color? she still have blisters in mouth and finds difficulty swallowing food.How long will it take her to be normal?

Hi,
It will be a while...she may have to find a "new normal." I was still in pretty crappy shape 6 weeks after treatment. The skin darkening was another fun side effect of the radiation. For a while, I looked as if I had 5 O'Clock shadow. That will eventually decrease in time. I still have eating issues, and I just have to try different things. Some things work, some things don't. She WILL get better...it just takes time.

Katie, recovery from chemo/radiation can take a very long time. Everyone is different and will recover at their own pace. Push the calories (minimum 2500 daily, more is better) and good nutrition with high protein. The better her nutrition is the easier it will be for her to bounce back. Her skin will eventually return to normal. If I had to give you an answer as to timeframe, I would say aprox 3-4 months post tx she should be feeling decent. She wont be 100% but should be pretty good.

Best of luck with your mothers recovery.

katie

My personal opinion is that it's easier for a male to have the dark skin on the face and neck than a female. Plus I was so thrilled to have skin again instead of peeling blisters, I didn't really notice when the color when back to normal. So I'll go with Christine's timetable. Unfortunately, there is never a return to "normal", only a "new normal" as mentioned but some people come pretty close. Hope your Mom is one of them
Charm

Kate,

I'm now 5 weeks after radiation and chemo and i still have a dark neck and patches of dark skin around the mouth so i guess its pretty normal. I'm still only eating pureed soups and very very soft food. I have started to try and eat solids but it rubs in my mouth and brings back lots of ulcers. Some of my ulcers have healed but then there are some that hasnt and of course new ones too depending on what i ate that day (if its acidic like youghurt then blisters will appear right away).

I try and have fruit smoothies in between meals to keep up the kilojoules and have noticed that i feel a little better each week. It is a very slow process.

Hope your Mum will start to feel better soon.

Minh