Hello, we just completed our second week of chemo & rad.
She has 30 rad (once daily for 6 weeks)& I believe Chemo every 4 weeks. My question is shes complaining obviously about her throat & airway being constricted.
Since this is only the second week, will she eventually have to go back with a trach to keep breathing? or will her throat swelling stay about the same through the rad.
Her doc said everything looked great today, but she's miserable as I believe anyone would under these circumstances.

Sorry to hear your sister is having a rough time with her treatments. I wish I could help you by answering your questions but its not possible. Nobody can predict how she will react to more treatments. Make certain everything she is telling you that she is also relaying to her doctors.

All I can tell you is to make sure your sister is taking in at least 2500 calories and 48 oz of water every single day. That is what will help her to get thru this easier. If you can push her to take in 3000 or even more calories it cant hurt. Same goes with the water, some say a person needs alot more than the 48 oz daily while in treatment. This is very important when having chemo to help flush it out of her kidneys. Sometimes all a caregiver can do is to focus on the things that are in their control such as hydration and nutrition.

Best wishes with everything!

I echo everything that ChristineB just posted, especially about the water.

A normal person needs 64 oz water daily. Healing/fighting makes severe demands on the system, and taking chemo exacerbates that significantly.

Have her get a 64 oz water bottle (I use old plastic V8 Juice containers, but any half-gallon container will do) and fill it first thing in the morning, and be sure that she drinks from it all day until it's gone.

It will also help her if she drinks an 8 oz glass of water when she uses the bathroom, first thing in the morning, even before brushing teeth or anything else other than answering the call of nature.

Water is required to keep the bowels moving (and unless you've had chemo, you can't imagine how important this can be. And if you have, you know what I'm talking about.)

It is also necessary to flush the byproducts of metabolism from your system and keep the blood from thickening as the healing/fighting process progresses.

In short, staying adequately hydrated is critical to survival. Just as the minimum caloric intake is.

Calories are needed for the extra fuel that powers the healing/fighting process; Water is needed to flush the byproducts.

Don't skimp on either! Doing so will make the process both more difficult, and more unpleasant at the same time.

Good luck, and my best wishes for a happy outcome!

Hi - in answer to your question - likely no on the trache (I've never heard of that happening) I won't say no it won't happen - because there's a first time for everything but highly unlikely - I didn't have pain - really - until later in my treatment - but I felt tight from the outset. I asked my dr and he told me from the surgery and neck dissection I had stitches in my throat, this of course causes scar tissue, radiation effects the tissue, causes it to fibrose and tighten, tell her to keep swallowing, and yawning and stretching her throat it will help - hugs

Thanks for the info as usual. I will pass it on.

Tell her good luck! and hugs..

Our new issue is extreme pain shooting up her side of her face and seems to go into her brain. We had a ct scan on her brain and it was clear. I'm figuring it has to be some kind of nerve damage from the surgery or the rad or chemo. At this point she wants to stop her treatment. I can't seem to convince her other wise until we can get this pain under control. She taking all kinds of pain med and has a patch etc. Did any of yall have this type of nerve pain shooting up the side of your face? When it hits she really can't do anything but sit and hold her head.

There are 5 major nerves that go across the face. When one of them is causing pain it can be excruciating! Ive experienced this kind of pain so severe that it stops you dead in your tracks. All you are able to do is to hold your head, you can barely even breathe it hurts so bad. Yes, this kind of pain can be completely normal. Make sure you discuss this in detail with her doc in case her meds need to be adjusted.

Christine> was your pain temporary? She's having these pains 20 hours a day and it is just paralyzing her recovery. My Mom finally drove her to the hospital today, so they could maybe get her out of the pain. This is far worse pain than she had before the surgery. I don't know how much more she can handle at this rate.

Yes, my pain was temporary. But I must warn you, it took me about 1 1/2 years for the pain to gradually disappear. Recovery seemed to take forever with pains coming out of the blue.

She needs to get on some pain meds to get this controlled. Gabadine??? may be the one medication that worked pretty well with the nerve pain. I cant quite remember the name of the medication. It was available in liquid which was refrigerated. The medication was originally for seizures and now used for nerve pain. Maybe a pain specialist could be helpful?