Hi. I’m 2 weeks into radiation of tongue and neck and have mucositis. Meeting with pain doc tomm. Do pain meds really make eating easier? Or is it more just a sleep aid? Another question: has anybody tried medical marijuana? I imagine that anything inhaled would be discouraged for oral cancer though I guess there is edible marijuana. (I’ve never done pot, in case you can’t tell!). I’m one third of the way through the radiation and the mucositis erupted literally overnight. Trying to remind myself that this will pass but I’ve never been great with pain and am a little down about it, especially knowing it probably get worse. And I haven’t even experienced the changes in taste yet which is coming

Have you been given the magic mouthwash? It will numb your mouth enough so you can eat. The painkillers, I believe, help to mitigate the throat pain, the mouth pain etc during radiation. If you are thinking about using marijuana, you really, really should check with your doctors. When my husband was getting ready for radiation, we were warned not to use Chinese medicine, large doses of pomegranate juice, etc because they will interfere with the free radicals during radiation. I would be careful and check with the doctors about anything that is not part of the prescribed meds.

I used Medical Marijuana during my treatment in the form of RSO, which is edible (with my Oncologist's approval). That helped me sleep and helped with the pain, but it wasn't enough when the mouth & tongue sores hit. For that I was prescribed low dose Morphine (causes constipation) and that allowed me to eat. Hang in there!

I got hydrocodone from my doctor which seemed to full the pain a little, make me care a little less about the pain, and sedated me so I could get to sleep a little easier. It definitely wasn't magic that made everything ok.

I take edible cannabis to sleep and tried that during treatment (disclosed to ask my doctor's) and it didn't help with the pain, but did help me not care about it quite as much and helped with my motivation to eat. I didn't take it often, but those days where my calorie count was low or I felt really down, it provided a little distraction and helped me get more calories in.

Good luck. It will end and you will heal, but it takes time and more patience than you might think you have, but you will find it and get through this!