My brother had his pick in today and had his first radiation and chemo. When he was at chemo they asked him why he was having radation first in the morning and then chemo afterwards. They said it was usually the other way around. That concerned him and couldn't find anyone to answer why that was. He wanted me to ask you all what you think. Why do you think they would do that? They also gave him a fanny pack type unit that feeds chemo 24 hours a day. Has anyone else had that? I sent him all the items that have been mentioned on this website. They told him to only use ivory soap when washing, no aquaphor on his neck when it starts to burn and scab up. I told him that was fine. Whatever they recommend we would get for him.
Thanks for your suggestions. I told him I would call him tomorrow with your ideas. My brother is at the Ann Arbor VA in Michigan.

No no no no no, It is much better to have radiation first then chemo afterwards. What if you sick and puke in the mask while you are on the table. He just should just reply "you don't know jack".

He should get Radiacare for his neck. Ask the RO people, they usually have small sample tubes. Make sure, though, that his neck is clean and dry just before each radiation treatment. Some lotions can have a bolus effect and can exacerbate the skin damage. Many people getting radiation don't have anything worse than a mild sunburn, so just take it each day as it comes. When it gets itchy, towards the end of treatment, DON'T SCRATCH IT! They gave me a steroidal cream and it took the itching right away. I only had to use it a couple of times.
Can't address the chemo schedule, I had 2 Cisplatin infusions 3 weeks apart.

Ivory soap???? I have never heard that one before. I don't know what I would have done with the Aquaphore and the other lotion (cannot remember the name at this moment) that I used. My neck had a few open areas on it near the end and the lotion made it feel much better. Someone needs to question whoever gave your brother all this info. Sounds like some aid that was misinformed.

I was told specifically to use ONLY Dove soap, but at this distance cannot remember why. I still use it though, having bought a LOT of it on sale way back then. That was before the burning began and I switched to Aquaphore and other good stuff. I think the soap business is they do not want any perfumes or additives on your skin when you are having treatment.

My husband John had cisplatin 3 times and every time it was in the morning. All his daily radiation treatments were scheduled for late afternoon.

On the days he had the chemotherapy administered he would, as Gary suggested, worry about being sick when he had the mask on, but was lucky that never happened. Once John was in treatment, I didn't have any sense that they linked the order of giving the chemo/radiation to effectiveness. They gave the first chemo a couple of days after starting radiation and the last one a few days before ending the radiation.

Thank you to all your replies. My brother thanks you from the bottom of his heart. When I talk with him he asks me how you all are doing. I wish he had and knew how to use the computer. I'm thinking when this is all over and he has some energy we'll have to see about a computer.
Thanks, Jan

Hi,

I fpound that if I took my nausea meds regularly, i had little trouble. it didn't matter much to me, when I had my chemo and radiation. taking the anit-nausea meds regularly kept me from problems. I find most people seem to think they should take when the nausea strikes. I went for the preemptive approach and it worked for me.

Steve

I had radiation first then chemo on my chemo days. I agree with Gary that it's the better way since bad nausea when you are lying under that mask is tough.

Nelie

For what it is worth, I was told only Dove or Olay soap before treatment. I think they want to keep the skin moisturized as much as possible with none of those other perfumes etc ingredients. After radiation treatment, you then may use the Aquaphor or whatever lotion they are recommending. I found Biafine to be the best for me, but people have found others that work better than Aquaphor. I think Florida Bill just mentioned one in a previous post that he bought at Walgreens.

Take care,
Eileen

My husband was treated at Johns Hopkins, and generally they tried to arrange radiation in the morning and chemo in the afternon, for reasons stated above. This was not always possible, there was a lot of demand for the tomoTherapy radiation machine and I know some of the folks had to take chemo in the am and radiation in pm. Usually the powerful anti-emetics given with the chemo drugs were enought to stifle nausea that day, but residual nausea was sometimes an issue on following days --especially if the chemo drug was cisplatin.

Those taking amifostine (Ethyol) had a whole other issue to deal with, nausea was often an after-effect of the injection. Thus the need to take Zofran or similar serious anti-nausea drug 90 minutes before the amifostine injection, and hope that it worked!

My husband was not given amifostine on chemo days, and (later into treatment) Fridays as by the end of the week, fatigue coupled with lingering chemo nausea made him very vulnerable to a bad reaction to the Ethyol. He got sick a couple of times and decided to bag Fridays. It did not seem to reduce the efficacy of the amifostine, by the way, as he came through with good salivary function.

Gail

p.s. Oh, the oncology nurses all said, "use Dove soap.."

I may have misunderstood the comment about the Dove soap. I read it to mean that his brother could only use Dove soap on his neck, no creams or anything else. I can understand using Dove in the shower, etc. What I didn't understand nor agree with was not using any of the creams. My teens use Dove soap religiously, it's great stuff!

Re creams on neck. Is it possible you mid-interpreted? I cannot imagine the nurses do not want your brother to use Biafine cream and/or Radiacare Gel (or equivalent) to protect and help his skin recover fron radiation. However, all the nurses will tell you that NO creams etc. can be on the skin during the actual radiation treatment.

Most patients follow a schedule for use of creams somewhat like my husband's:
Before bedtime, wash face and neck with a
mild soap (e.g. Dove), using a very soft cloth (he used baby wash cloths). Put on Radiacare gel and after that dries, a thick layer of Biafine cream. In morning, same routine. Before leaving for treatment (for him, late morning), a shower -- again using Dove -- and making sure to wash off all creams. Immediately after treatment, hit bathroom and apply gel and then the cream. Thus there were three applications a day but nothing on for the actual treatment. Barry had redness and itching and a bit of peeling like with a bad sunburn (which it essentially is!) but no serious broken skin or blisters. so for him this worked pretty well.

Gail