Ulcers

Hi Eastbourne belle and welcome to the forum.

I was very fortunate in that ulcers were something I didn't suffer with too much during treatment although I know there are plenty of others on the forum for whom ulcers were extremely painful.  I'm sure they'll advise soon but in the meantime, if you type ulcers into the bar at the top of the page all the previous posts will come up so you should be able to get some information from those.

Wishing you all the best in your treatment.

Linda x

Hi Eastbourne belle 

I had six weeks of RT and suffered quite badly with mucositis 

Its important to get your pain relief right which means taking adequate doses of the most appropriate drug often enough. At my worse I was taking something every 2 hours plus a long acting morphine twice daily. If you can time your analgesia before pain  breaks through It works much better. 
I was on oramorph and paracetamol 

Its important to keep your mouth clean and fresh so tooth brushing is important. If you really can’t manage a standard toothbrush Amazon do soft brushes called curaprox or you could try a water pick. 
There are lots of emollient mouthwashes such as Biotene too 

I took Caphosol which protects the damaged mouth and Gelclair which can ease the ulcers. 
Swishing your mouth out with Difflam 15 minutes before eating will help numb it. 
There is also a product called antacid with Oxytecaine which has local anaesthetic in it. 
Have a word with your team about any of these things 

By the fourth week I couldn’t eat at all so had a nasogastric tube placed. That was the answer to all if it and enabled me to be fed at night and took the pressure off me and trying to fight with getting enough calories down. 

Hi Eastbourne belle 

first of all welcome tomthe forum that none of us really want to be here. But now you e found us there’s quite a few of us in here who have been there done  if come out the other side I am Hazel aka RadioactiveRaz and am 22 month post radiotherapy for tonsil cancer with several affected lymph nodes,I had 35 radiotherapy sessions and 2 chemotherapy. I suffered quite early in with ulcers in my cheek and the roof of mouth also full length of my tongue. I was prescribed gelclair by my oncologist it’s expensive even to buy apps £74 it doesn’t work for everyone but worth asking in Monday.the  pain killers you may be ready to up your intake it’s important to keep on top of pain as it will unfortunately only get worse. for the ulcers you can try gargling with like warm water salt and baking powder glass of water teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder as a fix until you see your team. There’s also caphosol that can be prescribed I didn’t get that so can’t comment 

good luck hope it helps 

Hazel xx

Hi Eastbourne belle

Sorry to hear about your condition, radiotherapy is a nightmare!

Start using Gelclair, it'll sooth things down, I found out about it too late, 2 weeks after my RT finished (6 weeks of RT), by then inside of my mouth was burnt out by all the radiation, also had ulcers. Gelclair helped a lot, best to start it as early as possible. I'm still using it even now, 12 weeks after RT. Was on morphine for some time too, about 5 weeks, every 2 hours (10ml), it helped with the pain

Wish you all the best

Thank you for the tip of baking powder I will give  it a go. Take care xx

Bless you, know that feeling, how many more sessions have you got to do.  As the others have said try and get some Gelclair.  I also used Difflam mouthwash but when the ulcers were at their worst had to water this down but at least it freshened the mouth.  Are they bleeding, think that is the worst as it gives a terrible taste.  I found keep rinsing with warm water helped but yes if you have a few weeks to go get them to up the pain meds as well.  Good luck and hang in there

Mo xx

Hi Eastbourne belle, 10 sessions in I suffered from ulcers the length of both sides of my tongue, could hardly even speak, gelclair didn't work for me although if u do use this be careful as another head and neck patient told me it clogged up his drain as he was spitting it down the sink...

Aspirin dissolved in water numbed my ulcers to an extent although it was quite painful... 

Fluxocillin prescribed after radiotherapy cleared them up in around 2 weeks, not sure if it would work during therapy tho....