My husband is one year out from treatment for base of tongue cancer. Several teeth were pulled prior to radiation but much too close to beginnning treatment. Not enough time to heal. Problems did not start with jawbone pain until several months after treatment ended. Now a BIG problem and must use narcotics for pain due to exposed jawbone. Has had 2 minor surgeries and hyperbaric treatment to aid in healing of exposed bone in jaw but has not completely healed. Am concerned about using strong narcotic and wonder how long this will continue. Others had this problem?

My mom is over a year out of treatment and still has pain due to an exposed bone. The skin graph that was supposed to cover the bone pretty much fried with the radiation so it left the bone exposed. She also has to take pain killers fairly often but does not like taking them. She has had no HBO treatments because her ENT feels that if there was any cancer left the HBO treatments would cause it to spread faster. She just had a PET/CT scan last week that showed no signs of any cancer in her body but she to is experiencing pain. If you happen to find anything that will help this please keep me posted. I feel horrible that she has to live with this pain and hope there is something they can do to help her in the near future.

Dani

If we have a solution, we'll share with you on this forum. Thanks for your post.

My husband had the same problem. He was on narcotics for about a year and a half. I was concerened too. He had a surgery to help fix the problem. Didnt get the result we were hoping for. The pain stoped about 6 months after the last surgery, and the bone is still exposed. I really dont know why the bone is still exposed and it doesnt hurt.
He did finally get off the drugs, but not until his pain was gone, he just couldnt take it. He did get off the duladid, with out to much problem. I think he was just happy to be pain free.
I hope they can find something to help her.

Cheryl

Thank you Cheryl your post gives me hope. She does not want to go through another surgery but the constant pain is driving her crazy. I'm hoping her doctors will figure this out soon. I am thankful that her surgery was drastic so that they felt comfortable that they got all the cancer but its just the after effects that are making her miserable.

Dani