Hi all,

I am almost 12 months since surgery (Xmas Eve released from hospital) and 9 months post radio. My question is, has anyone one else experienced their hair being ultra dry? I have naturally curly hair and it has been so dry for a few months, at times sticking up like a gollywog! And quite a bit falls out when brushing. I'm lucky to have heaps of hair, ie, it is not noticeable (only a secret between me and the brush!).

Also, are teeth a problem to many? Mine look awful. The dentist wants me to do very serious fluoride-ing and moussing for a couple of months until my next visit. I always hated my teeth and now even more (I was born with not very good teeth, and too many antibiotics when a child - bronchial pneumonia, etc).

Cheers!

Tizz

Tizz if you don't take care of your teeth now you might end up with OsteoRadioNecrosis (ORN). It could cost you your jawbone. Your best bet would be 30 dives in an HBO chamber. If your teeth were in bad shape they should have recommended pulling them prior to treatment.
I can't answer the hair question - I shave my head.

G'Day Tizz,

I only lost about an inch of hair up the back (direct line through the neck from rad) and when it came back it was very brittle and dry. It is still a bit finer than the rest, but the natural oil did return and I can't tell the difference. (Of course, my friends tell me that nobody could tell anyway since the rest is fairly long and thick )

I didn't fair too well with the teeth issue, but they weren't the best anyway, so that may have had a lot to do with it. It also didn't help for me in that I didn't do very good at all in ingesting nutrition for too long of a time after rad. (Didn't have any vegemite sandwiches where I was )

Peace
Jack
..........
Dx 1/15/97 SCC rt. tonsil met to rt lymph node Stg IV,
Srgry 1/23/97 tonsillectomy & mod radical neck dissection,
Radiation 35 trtmnts both sides

Hi Gary and Jack,

I have only the last back teeth on the lower jaw and 8 at the front, so the dental surgeon was quite happy with me :-) Upstairs I have a partial denture. The staining is in the core - must have been the vegemite...;-) I always asked dentists to take the bloody lot out, but they love saving teeth nowadays. BTW, out of curiousity, how is the HBO done?

Re hair...a good thing losing some facial "down" is perhaps when I reach menopause I won't grow a beard :-)...should have asked them to do the legs as well...

Cheers!

Tizz

Hi Tizz, Coarse feeling dry hair is one of the symptoms of hypothyroid. If you havn't had the test recently, well get it.

The HBO chamber is pretty much a big air tank that you climb into and they seal off. I gather they vary in size some. Then pure oxygen is slowly pumped in, raising the pressure up to 3 times atmospheric pressure. You stay in for a while, read a book, sleep and then they slowly bring you back to normal pressure. The term "dive" is a bit misleading as there is no water involved.

As long as you have clear ears or can "pop" them you wouldn't really notice anything much.

Take care
PS how is summer?

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the information. Summer here is hotting up...we had a couple of days in November when it was 42 deg C (107.6 F?), today it is going to be a bit cooler - 27 deg! Thank goodness we live near some of the best beaches in the world :-)

Cheers!

Tizz

I want to come over for a visit! Tomorrow is going to be -15 F (yes that is Minus 15 degrees) with wind chill factors in the range of -25 degrees F. We live near some fine beaches too but right now the water is pretty hard.

Tizz here is a bit more information about HBO. If one is in the individual chamber, then one changes to scrubs that have been washed in special detergent. No lotions, hair preparations, makeup, jewelry, or anything else is allowed inside, including and especially paper, as in books. In an oxygen rich environment every effort is made to eliminate even the smallest risk of static, for obvious reasons. Entertainment options are limited to music or watching videos through a curved glass. In a multi-place chamber however, there is much more leeway and I have known people who were able to read. This treatment is used when teeth are pulled, or in my case, implants placed, because the high level of oxygen causes new capillaries to form, bringing more blood to the bone, which allows it to heal. The effect lasts for about a year, then the healed bone reverts to the previous state, which is fine if there is no trauma. If you ever need this treatment, contact me and I will give you some helpful hints.

About hair, I lost mine and it came in frizzy and dry for the first few inches, then reverted to normal.

I want to visit your warm beaches too!

Tizz, the flouride treatments are pretty much a required deal after radiation, the natural enzimes in our saliva tend to go missing as the saliva is reduced some after rad, so go for the flouride treatmemts.


I wound up cutting my hair real short after rad so the loss of hair in the back wouldn't be so noticable, can't help there. But my scalp did change for a while afterward, had to use a product called Nizoral from the chemist. Is your scalp real dry and itchy? Mine went through a stage like that both times after rad.

Beaches sound nice, really long for air you can't see. No rain here for several months and the pollution is horrible, viz down to a kilometer or so. Off to Ko Samui for the holidays, if no one ever hears from me again you know where to find me.
Bob

Hi Tizz

I don't recall having very dry hair but I did have major hair loss because I was very hypothyroidic (possibly prior to treatment). When the thyroxine replacement kicked in my hair gradually returned to normal. I suggest consulting your gp regarding the hair loss this far out from rad.

It is strange that aussies often travel to experience a white Christmas and northern hemisphere residents want to go to the beach! There are drawbacks - sand and turkey sandwiches plus flies in the champagne but we soldier on!

Love from Helen