Silver sulfadine cream should only be used with a very thin amount. Sounds like you are using more than necessary.

I always liked beta-val cream better. Ask your doc for a prescription with refills or ask the nurse if they have any samples. Many times they will have Aquaphor lying around to hand out. Aquaphor is over the counter but a little expensive.

How to use the cream successfully..... Dab it on, never rub it into your skin then allow it to soak the rest of the way in. Depending on what time you do your rads should dictate when you put your cream on. For example if your rads apt is at 10am, I would suggest you shower then go to rads. After you finish, dab some cream on in the car prior to going home. If your rads are later in the day (say 2pm), lightly dab some cream on after the shower using only what will soak in prior to your appointment (maybe half your regular amount). After treatment, dab it on in the car before going home. Prior to going to bed put more cream on and allow it to soak in overnight.

Another tip, I would dab the cream on and place a small gauze pad over it so the cream didnt wipe off all over the bedsheets. The rad techs used the gauze pads also when my skin exentually broke open. They would place the gauze over the weeping sores so the mask didnt touch the wounds. My neck was a real mess that I was certain would scar and look horrible after rads. Somehow my neck healed and there were no visible scars at all.

Good luck Ambra!!! I have faith that you will get thru all of these things and put it behind you soon.

Hi, Ambra
Congrat's on making it through Thanksgiving and almost to the end of therapy!

I bought a stack of soft, white washcloths and used those for cleansing as gauze is actually a bit rough. The other thing I did was to cut off the neck band of some of my husband's t-shirts so that they did not rub on his neck.

Crying is ok - really it is. Just remember to keep your eyes open if you are crying when you drive!

Thinking of you and hoping for the best!

Maria

Samki... she is... not offended... she's not my sister (if she was I would have given her a good smack upside the head ages ago... )

Ambra,
Hoping the soaked gauze and less silvadene works for you. FIVE DAYS LEFT! That's exactly what I thought this morning when I was praying for you! You have done an incredible job being so very courageous. I admire you.
xo

Thank you everyone for such supporting and helpful comments. It certainly feels like second family here.

Hmm, from couple of your comments, it certainly sounds like I am using too much Silvadene. I may have misunderstood a nurse who told me to use enough to completely cover the skin without any skin showing through. I am seeing my RO tomorrow, so I will double check on that. I will also ask about Domeboro. At this point, the two or so hours I have to spend cream free from its removal till the end of rads are really, really bad pain wise.

Christine thank you for all the tips, especially the final one. I am afraid I already messed up my sheets with the cream, but I started applying the gauze pad as soon as I read your advice.

Maria, I did something similar, and bought a couple of very cheap scoop neck t-shirts. I do not mind if I get cream on them at all.
No worries about crying and driving,I do not drive to begin with. Even if I did, I wouldn't be allowed to with the meds I am on.

I also think I have discovered a brand new side effect of the rads, called "dropping stuff and spilling various solutions everywhere" Joke aside, I am constantly spilling and dropping things, including food and medications, at least once a day. My brand new laptop and a liquid oxy have had a couple of close encounters, which freaked me out. Luckily my laptop survived. I hope this is due to the meds and not to some strange thing happening in my brain.

And, finally, only three treatments left!

Three!!! Ahhh much better than 5!

Keep going - keep eating.. Hugs!

Way to go Ambra, only 3 zaps left. I am truly jealous with 14 still to go.

I found today I could actually eat a can of chicken and stars soup from the grocery; it didn't taste bad at all. Of course the whole can only has 170 or so calories, so it isn't much. But, to be able to enjoy something besides Ensure is a welcome change.

Keep fighting Ambra, you're so close now.

Tony

I am counting days, only one treatment left on Monday! If it weren't for Thanksgiving break, I would have already been done.

I have seen my RO briefly on Thursday, and will see him again on Monday. While we will discuss this more on Monday, it appears that they do not want to give me any followup PET scans! At all! I have expressed my strong dislike of this and he said well, "maybe" before he had to leave; but it seems that I am up for a huge battle on Monday. I have read on Ngk's thread PaulB's response that there are no clear guidelines on the frequency of both ENT follow-ups and PET scans. Still, it seems to me that most people get one at 3 months and one around 9/12 months as well. Not sure about later in the first 5 years.

What would be good reasons not to give one a followup PET scan? I know it is not the radioactivity dose, those are low and one person can have quite a few PET scans. I have probably acquired much higher dose from daily CT scans before the rads anyway (that is how Tomo machines work). I simply can not come up with a good reason. How can one be declared NED with scans, based on what?

I do tend to worry a lot and while we all always worry about the cancer coming back, I am pretty certain this fear will be huge for me without PET scans. Especially since I was not given chemo, and I am already worrying about microscopic cancer cells that may have gotten out of neck into, say, lungs.

As you can see, I am very upset about this and prepared to really advocate my wishes on Monday. I sometimes get the feeling that they are treating me as a light case. In case the outcome of the conversation is not as I want, who else can prescribe me a PET scan? Can my family doctor do that? I know my ENT/surgeon can, but he and my RO work closely together so i am sure they share their opinions.

Hey there Ambra,

I know exactly what you mean! You and I have the same RO at JH. I did have a PET at 14 weeks post Tx and I was NED. I was told the same thing. No more PET scans or CAT scans. A yearly chest x-ray was all that will be required. I feel somewhat uneasy about it but then I put my life in their hands and I'm here so they must have a reasonable explanation. I spoke with Mysha about it but I, like you, want a more detailed reason why.

I've was scoped in September and last month and everything looked great. There's no reason to think the cancer has returned nor do I have any symptoms that make me suspect there's an issue.

Let us (and me) know what you find out and congrats! One more and done! The healing can begin

Positive thoughts and prayers

"T"