I finished my 7 weeks (with 35 sessions) of rad on June 19. I had no chemo, and no surgery (gratefully.)

After throwing up for the bazillionth time due to extreme dry throat, I am wondering how much longer it will be until I see some tiny ray of light of feeling better.

I'm doing all eating via a PEG tube, my face and neck are swollen like I've been stung, my nose membranes are so inflamed I can't breathe thru my nose, my eyes feel burnt (sunglasses are my friend), I'm taking morphine 4 times a day to try to manage the dry throat cough spasms. And there's the semi-regular fun of IV fluid drip.

I'm trying to figure out if I'll be ready to return to work any time soon. My boss hopes to see me back in a couple of weeks; my doctor estimates another month.

I miss the simple things in life, like snot and spit. Any idea when even the tiniest evidence of recovery begins???

You'll start feeling better over the next week or so. Work in two weeks? Don't count on it.

You will start to feel slight improvement in the sore throat department, but once you start to feel a little less pain, there is still mouth sores, fatigue, weaning off of the PEG, keeping your fuid levels up, keeping your calories up, etc.

Tx takes your body precipitously close to death, in order to get rid of the Beast. A near death experience is not something you get over quickly. Take the time you need...the joys of snot will return...spit, well that's possibly another matter, but it will improve. Meantime, take a few minutes ( or a few hours, if you're so inclined) to go outside and smell the flowers.

I guarantee you, you'll never appreciate their fragrance more than will now after being though what you've gone through
Wayne

You are in recovery now but you must be be patient and gentle with yourself. There will probably be setbacks but as you progress you will notice that the things that were once so difficult and painful have become a little easier. I guess that is a pretty standard answer.

When you look back you will probably be amazed at what you accomplished. You can do this.

Gary

The first 2 weeks after radiation stoped were the worst 2 weeks of the whole procedure for me. Then I started feeling better and about 6 weeks got a lot of tast back. Your energy should start coming back after 2 weeks also and at 4 weeks you should be somewhat functioning well. At 2 mos close to normal with tied feeling which lasted a year.

Joy,

I started to felt alittle better beginning in my 3rd week post Tx. I remembering waking up one am and just feeling better and I just knew I was walking out of that damn tunnel for good. BUT, don't you just hate those BUTS, even after you start to feel better you will have bad days and then good days and slowly your bad days will disappear. It will be a very slow process but I am almost 10 months post now and I feel 1000000000% better than I did when I started to feel better.

Hang tough and before you know it, you'll be 10 months post Tx and you will be posting the same message.

Just wanted to add, the chemo doctor told my husband and I that he would feel "normal" in 4 to 6 months post treatment. It is a very slow process. We are now 8 weeks post. My husband is improving slowly but surely. Hope it helps. Carol Ann.

JoyLight,

Tell your boss you are fighting CANCER!! Not a cold or flu!!

Your body needs lots of time to regroup. This is not something that happens over night or just in a few weeks.

Recovery is hard to say. Everyone is different. I would guess from what you have said 3 months you will start feeling better.

You need to keep up with the Hi Protein diet via feeding tube and eating if possible.

Make sure you get the Boitene Products (ORAL BALANCE) for Dry Mouth & Throat. It comes in gel, tooth paste, liquid, mouth wash. I have all of them and it helps a lot.

As far as eating by mouth. Start slow and try drinking milk shakes. See if you can swallow OK and develop the muscles. Then try scrambled eggs with milk. This seems to be the first thing all of us could eat. Then you can try Oat meal. Which for me seems like a saliva fix!!

I hope some of this was helpful. If not keep posting.. OK? That is how we all learn.
Take care
Diane

The rule of thumb is one month of recovery for each week of radiation.

My husband is 6 weeks post tx. He gets very impatient with himself and his recovery. To underscore some of the comments made here...it is amazing what your body does!

I found it helpful to keep a diary of his progress and even setbacks - in fact due to a logistical issue and a health scare I had to take pix of him right after treatment to email to his treatment center 55 miles away. From there I decided to take a few pix of him every week. After 3 weeks when he was down in the dumps I gave him a picture chronology of 3 weeks along with the journal I kept of his food intake and even little things like - being able to smile again! He could then see the milestones he made in really a relatively short period of time.

He had forgotten the days during tx when he would tell me how he dreamed of being able to drink a glass of water again....and what that would mean to him...he is now so far along from that!

He was amazed and (clueless). It really improved his spirits!

The point is we are seeing that little baby steps taken one after the other get you farther down the road quicker than you think...so hang in there!

My signifcant other has 2 more radiation treatments to go. How long does it take for the burns on the neck to heal? I demanded Biafine, after much research. Aquaphor seemed to help some too. Silver sulphdine can be used too only after treatment. He was pretty lucky, only lost 5lbs. I on the other hand as a caregiver have lost 15lbs. and many hours of sleep. At 3 weeks the sore throat set in. I made him drink Aloe Vera juice 4x per day, which helped alot.
Appetite never went away. I guess he was fortunate in what he endured. He always says "this is a piece of cake". He's a tuff, old fart, cowboy. This website has provided so much helpful insite into this horrible disease. I will be constantly reading it, and thinking of everyone out there.