Care of neck after radiotherapy

Hi mike, I would give your team a ring about this, if there is puss coming out you want to get someone to look at it to make sure it isnt infected or get some advice to make sure it doesn’t get infected. I had 35 rt sessions and my neck suffered badly. I used diprobase cream at the start but then had to change to the ointment. I also used a special polymem dressing from the hospital to cover it up. The radiotherapy nurses changed it every morning after rt and I redressed it at night. I think the nurses used other creams as well when it was at its worst but I just can’t remenber what they were called. I had to get some antibiotics as I had an infection in my neck. Even after rt was all finished,the  rt nurses  arranged for the district nurse to come out everyday to check on my neck and redress and they had me back once a week to hospital to check on it. It was about two/ three weeks after rt finished before I was allowed to take the dressing off completely but I still had to use the diprobase ointment long after that. 

Hello Mike , i would take Gills advice and get it looked at, i was always under the impression if it becomes wet / pussie then it needs to dry up so maybe the creams etc might have to be stopped and dressing used , i remember when one of my wounds was not healing well and they but a special plaster/gauze on it , it did the trick so maybe they can do similar . It does sound as if it is infected so probably a course of antibiotics is needed. Please do not apologise as I'm sure my grammar is worse than yours. Good luck with the outcome and if possible let us know the outcome as it all helps others who are suffering similar signs. All the best.

                                                                                              Chris  

Thanks guys you were right, I went to see my doctor yesterday and asked him. He gave me another tub of diprobase and swabs to clean my neck and sent me on my way. Not been completely happy with this i rang my radiotherapy department and they were very helpful. They told me to put a dressing on it if its wet, keep putting cream where the skin is ok and then leave the pussie bit without cream and dress the whole lot of it. 

Hope this helps anyone else out and I will come back and tell you what dressings they have given me. How long it takes to sort out. 

Cheers again guys 

Mike