I have been reading all I can from these forums and notice that the USA have a lot of useful things that we do not have in England and wondered if there are alternatives or different names for things and wondered if anyone could help?
Club Soda - is this soda water
Ensure?
Alternatives for high calorie drinks
Magic Mouthwash.
Thank you all for your help and support.

club soda or seltzer water

Ensure is a high protein drink which also has some vitamins in it, there is also boost very high calorie as a good alternative to ensure. These can be ordered online.

Magic mouthwash is a prescription formula which the 3 ingredients can vary (maylox, benedryl, lidocaine is one combo).

Thanks for your help, I am just trying to get prepared! The NHS advises gargling with soluble asprin for pain after radiotherapy which I feel might be slightly less than adequate.

Hi
I'm in the uk as well Mandy. I used salt water and bicarbonate to rinse. The hospital gave me Mugard which was ok. Ensure drinks were given to me as well but I couldn't drink them.
If not offered then ask cos it's there to help if you need it.
All the best
Jayne

HI Mandy

yes, club soda is soda water. Any fizzy non sugar drink will do - even sparkling mineral water. Alex liked the sparkling water as it had slightly less fizz which worked better for him. Soda water hurt his mouth whilst he had ulcers. Left to go a little flat and it was fine

Ensure is a brand of high nutritional food (liquid) and should be available in the UK. There are many brands and you may have heard of Jevity, or TwoCal. These products are usually available through your hospital dietician via the NHS. Supermarket brands such as Sustagen are available but are weaker versions and a poor second choice. They are supplements as opposed to complete nutrition. If you need complete nutrition (ie your diet is almost non-existant) you need to ask your dietician for recommendations and possibly to put you on a scheme that allows you to get it through the NHS (this is how it works in Australia - not sure about the UK).

Christine has answered your question re Magic Mouthwash - you need to ask your doctor about something to kill the pain of your ulcers that contains a topical anaesthetic to numb the pain in your mouth whilst you eat. That will get you to the UK equivalent

Here in Toronto, My hospital specifically recommended, soda water. (aka club soda) apparently the components of it - the sodium bicarb, etc... were the same as mixing the salt and baking soda, but this is a mixture you can drink so it heals the throat, whereas the baking soda mixture should be swished gargled and spit. They also recommend flattening it as some people become super sensitive to the fizz during rads. I for one still can't tolerate anything with fizz, and as of this coming monday I am 2 years post op and 21 months post rads.

best of luck.

Klo, that's interesting to read about your supermarket brands of nutritional drinks. Here they're pretty much the same as Ensure or Boost. I think the stuff all comes out of one factory and they just put different labels on it. But then, that's what I think about most American food products... there's this huge plant in Kansas with train tracks going off toward all points of the compass. Box and ship!

(Oh and PS I'm not referring to Jevity, which I understand is higher density stuff; never tried it, I just use whichever of the clones is on sale)

I think most are Ross Nutrition, like Jevity, which is a subdivision of Abbott laboratories makers of Glucerna products. The Glucerna 1.5 has more protein than the Jevity 1.2, both of which I have, but these are probably available through durable medical goods stores not grocery stores.

Hi Mandy, I am in the UK too. Ensure is avaialbe here to but I was prescribed Fortisip which is very similar (you will find them on Amazon but you should be able to get them on prescription or from the hospital). I still use a bicarbonate of soda solution regularly as a mouthwash and when my mouth was very sore I was prescribed Diflam/Benzydamine (Oral rinse - locally-acting nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug with local anaesthetic and analgesic properties) and also Antacid and Oxetacaine suspension (made up at the hospital but like Mucaine)which between them have a similar result I think to Magic mouthwash. This forum will give you a lot more info than I could squeeze out of my doctors so make good use of it, there is loads of helpful info here. Good luck with your treatment. Sally

Mandy - I was kind of surprised to see that they want you to rinse with some soluble aspirin. That seems counterintuitive to me. Aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid . The mechanisms of pain relief with it is never through direct contact but through stomach absorption and outward from there. When aspirin comes in direct contact with the mucous membranes of the mouth it causes burns. I can remember a patient that came into the clinic that had a tooth ache and the idiot had taken an aspirin tablet and put it on his gums hoping to directly get the relief there faster. It had caused a huge ulcer on his gums within a few hours� something significantly more painful than the tooth ache.

Perhaps when soluble it is diluted so much it is absorbed faster in your stomach, but that can't be highly consequential. This statement must reflect some across the pond differences in phraseology rather then chemistry because no one would ever topically apply aspirin, that just isn't how it works.

I kinda laugh some times at what the health service has said when it comes to things ( other posters comments) because in my case the pain from the radiation induced mucocitis in my mouth required MORPHINE and other opiates!! And my situation was not uncommon. Obviously you want to take the lest damaging drug to deal with pain as you can, but it will not be long before an aspirin tablet (taken properly) will not even put a dent in the discomfort.

Please don't let this scare you, I did not mean it to, but just wanted to convey that the doctors may have misstated or something may have been misunderstood. I am sure when the time comes it ail sort itself all out.