I saw a post from Deb about her husband using a "Fentenyl Patch".

Might one of those keep the edge off thru week four?

My throat Frog was a nice lady all of yesterday so I took her over to a friends for an exceptional Indian Food dinner and she thanked me with a peaceful nights sleep.

Maybe a touch of curry in the honey elm tea brewed in Seltzer water?

Well I hope everyone has a good day

I am off to rad 13 (what an unlucky number - bad omen )

Don,
So glad Miss Froggy behaved nicely and you were able to sleep.

RE: the Fentenyl patch. Use the search feature on this board and you will see lots of posters using it in various strengths. Bill only had the lowest dosage patch and it worked reasonably well. He didn't need it right away...thinking that he started using it around week 5 as the liquid morphine worked up till then. If my memory serves me correctly, you place it on the skin and it stays there for 72 hours, then it is changed. It is pretty powerful stuff and has side effects...mental confusion, lethargy....etc...so use with caution. You usually have a script for other meds for breakthru pain while using the patch.

Glad its Friday and you have a weekend with no zapping appts...we were always grateful for the little weekend breaks from all the medical stuff.

Deb

I have to do this....

Who... (sorry) How is you Froggy?

Re patch, I never had one and relied "only" on liquid morphine/oxycodone. It is good to know that that is available too if needed. From what I recall there were some issues with dosage/side effects. (scan the board and see the above message).

Best

M

I had the patches. They go on your upper outside arm and stay there for a couple of days then you apply a fresh one. I really didn't think they were that powerful unless mine were just the weak ones. Good luck with whatever goes for you.

Don:

I have used the fentanyl patch while going thru treatment. Ask your doc about it. I started on 25mg patch and ended with 100mg. Then I was weaned back to 25mg before taken completely off. For me, the patches worked great, it was so much better at controlling pain constantly. You need to change them every 72 hours. I would highly recommend getting the patch.

Don . . . like Christine, my RO put me on the patch and built it up at the worst points and then scaled it down. Starting out with a low dosage, you may not notice the effect ( it is not a rush ) but I agree that it along with "magic mouth wash" and the other pain medications assist your body in making it through the treatment process.

William,
What is "magic mouth wash"? Several times now I have seen reference to it.

I was right that last Friday's rad 13 was a bad omen. By Saturday night my taste-buds had really gone haywire and after today's rad 14 everything I have tried to eat really tastes awful. A couple bites and I lose my appetite.

Water now has more of an "off taste", but .......

Anyway my throat frog and her muck pond are such a mess now I just manage to swallow soft foods and since they now taste so bad I guess is time to confront the dreaded PEG.

Today I got a big bottle of Lortab, smaller bottle of Viscous Lidocaine thru my MO, but he said I should check with my RO about the "patches". I will see him tomorrow.

I also picked up some Robitussin DM. Actually I am not in any pain yet except when I swallow and my mouth is still free of sores. Tomorrow ends my week three ... then four and beyond!

Don
as long as you can swallow without too much pain you probably want to keep doing it. Re taste... Even cardboard would seems to be an improvement. Try vanilla and coffee flavored milk shakes. The vanilla taste stayed around the longest for me.

M

Magic mouthwash:
these are different formulations compounded in a pharmacy.
May !! contain Maalox hence the color, Nystatin, Lidocaine, antihistamines, glucocorticoids etc.

I had a bottle too, it burned like hell and I finally threw it away. In retrospect I guess mine did not contain lidocaine.

Don-
Have you checked for thrush? Early on in my treatment I got really discouraged because everything tasted gross, water was the worst - it was just "off" tasting." Turns out it was thrush and I got that cleared up right away and it was amazing how much better everything tasted! I still had my tastebuds after all! Now that I'm done I'm battling the mouth ulcers and the mucus (they hit full force at the end of week 6), but that's a whole different story. I have the Magic Mouthwash as well with the lidocaine but it is not so magic and I rarely use it - and it does burn until the lidocaine kicks in and then it burns again as the lidocaine is wearing off, at least for me. I stick to my Lortab and Morphine - they seem to do the trick for the pain. And definitely keep swallowing!!! I can't "eat" anything right now because of the ulcers but I try to drink as much water as I can every day to keep my throat open.

Don:

My magic mouthwash was a mix of malox, lidocain and benadril. There are alot of different combos, mine I used several times a day to numb my mouth so I was able to drink. The nystatin is what burns your mouth, I had that for thrush.

Keep swallowing water even if it tastes bad and burns your mouth. It will help you down the road so you dont have to relearn how to swallow.

I know how much you hate the peg tube. It sounds like right now its about to become your friend. Hopefully you have practiced using it so you are able to know which way you tolerate the formula feedings and if you can tolerate the formula. I had a hard time with the gravity method and also pushing it thru with a syringe. I had to get the feeding pump and use it overnight, which wasnt so bad. It also took me several formulas before I found one that I was ok with.

The fentanyl patch will take about 24 hours to kick in. It will make this so much easier if you dont have to constantly think about when to take your pain meds. You may still need to take alitle for break thru pain occassionally. I use hydrocodone which I think is generic lortab, its liquid and goes thru the peg tube. Dont forget Robotussin can go thru the peg tube too.

Hang in there you are about half way finished.