Hi Jack,
There's lots of reasons why one could suddenly vomit in this early stage of post Tx. Radiation sickness, phlegm "stuck" in the back of the throat or thick mucous, constipation, messed up nerve endings from radiation burns, thrush, ongoing toxicity from the chemo, etc. It's almost impossible to clear your throat in the normal way this early on. I had to experiment a lot to find techniques to get food down and keep it there. And even so, I still vomited a fair amount up to a month ot two post Tx. I would vomit routinely after the lidocaine (pink magic)swish & spit. It still worked though.
I did ok with eggs, scrambled. Like Mark, meat was the very first thing I tried and it was very rare (still mooing) filet mignon and it was delicious. Tip: it HAS to be moist. I had to take my time and eat small bites and ofentimes it would get stuck in my throat. It is an art to swallow the right amount of liquids to flush it done since the swallowing muscles are damaged and not fully functional, add to that zerostomia and it can creats some predictable difficulties.

Thanks to all for the replies. It is my husband who had surgery and radiation. He is now 5 weeks post radiation and doing pretty well with oatmeal, yogurt, eggs, even had a small piece of steak the other night! He was supposed to return to work in a month, but I don't see that happening. He is still so weak. I'm just gonna keep feeding him and hope like heck he regenerates some of that deterioated muscle and gains some weight. So skinny! Again - thanks.

Jen,

That's great that he is able to eat some solid foods. That is what we are working on and reading that your husband is doing it gives me hope. I am sure his eating will keep improving. Good luck.

Jack Hovenier

Jen, the oatmeal, eggs, some meat are a good start. Depending on the type of job your husband has in a month he might be able to do half days. My boss kind of pushed me back early, not so much as a need to have me back or to be mean, but more with the idea that it's just not good for a person to sit around and not be active. But, that's not for everyone. One winds up going to work feeling like hell on some days, but then it also keeps ones mind from thinking about how bad they feel sometimes.

As a food suggestion, I accidentally found out that lamb chops tend to be easier to deal with than beef moisture wise. I guess there's a higher fat/oil content. This was interesting for me because I used to not particularly like lamb. I guess having one's sense of taste altered by all this can have a good side.
Bob