eating in general while having chemo and radiotherapy

I Just did  them during treatment and afterwards.  NG tube for eight weeks. I can eat and swallow anything now. The need to eat is overstated. It’s what you can comfortably do. 
Your SALT will give you exercises. I think it’s best to stick to what they suggest tempered by people’s experiences here and leave  Google and American sites alone but that’s just my opinion. 

Minmax said:

I was just looking at tongue exercises etc on utube

PS

Pay attention to the ones for Trismus because you need to keep your tempotomandibular joints nimble or your mouth may close up slowly. The advice usually given is to aim for the normal opening which is three fingers of your subordinate hand.

On frequency, I did all these exercises frequently through the day. What with anointing my mouth with all sorts of washes and analgesics and toothpastes and massaging lymphodema away I seemed to do little else for a while 

Hi Dani I agree 100% with what you say about google etc , but one thing that does make sense is doing the exercises before treatment and ideally not losing weight if possible .  I will go with the flow. Is there a problem drinking coffee during treatment ? . or was I having a nightmare 

Caffeine is dehydrating. You will likely lose taste for it though. A proper coffee was one of the first hot drinks I enjoyed when getting better. That and a real ale  

The trick in not losing weight during and immediately after treatment lies in taking in sufficient calories and protein. 2500 to 3000 a day. You’ll recover more quickly if you feed yourself properly. RT damage is expensive in energy. 
This means getting those Fortisips down ( 6 a day) orally or by tube

Hi agree with everything Dani has said. Everyone reacts differently to treatment there’s no one size fits all I had n g tibe in from week 4  to week 3 of recovery. Normal food for me became impossible from week 3. I ate 2500 calories for the first 15 month which is no mean feat our bodies take a battering from radiotherapy it’s only this last year I’ve put weight back on. Coffee fir me took a long while to come back now am fine but during treatment best I coujd do was sniff it. Herbal tea is was my drink of choice. Caffeine dries you out snd with dry mouth it’s lady thing I wanted. Mine careful of dr Google that’s all I will say. I did my exercises on way to hospital in car in kitchen in fact sat watching tv. My swallow and  trimus. Is just as good as before due to the SALT team and my diligence. Hope this helps.
Hazel  

Hi Dani I love real ale and might be tempted later today after the news. I will give the food  my best shot as there are some people here who have gone through hell and back.   

Some people manage better than others. I was discussing this with Alison who does my acupuncture. Maybe a lot of it is down to your micro biome? Oh and it’s not really Hell. It’s jolly painful but that can be managed. The difficult but is in being out of control. It’s one thing believing and trusting your team, that’s easy. The hard bit is trusting your own body. I’m sure the people who get counselling have an easier ride. I was never really offered it 

Hi Dani more good advice Thanks I had  news today so am going to start a new thread to jump on Thanks 

I’m just starting week 2 and felt just like you.

i seems to find all sorts of swallowing, tongue and jaw exercises on other hospital websites, but had heard nothing from my own team - until today.

I’ve been making sure to do them anyway 

Hi Panch,

I hope I am not talking out of turn and talking about something all together different, I had RT at the beginning of the year I had a rig tube put in for a few weeks ,my swoolwing was fine so I had the tube removed,I believe the tube did some damage to my stomach as I haven't really had an appertite since and my taste was damaged to the fact my sweet taste was salty.

I started Cheamo in Sepember,my taste was getting a little better but my appertite is so bad I just had a boiled egg after three days of not  eating anything and even struggling with the Forijuice.

Everyone says eat little and often but when you feel like throwing up at the thought of any food what so ever,it is easier said than done.

I am not doing very well on Cheamo side effects but I believe it is working, I am being treated for myeloma,but I had Plasmacytoma, all I can say is I worry so much about my taste getting back to normal as I was never a big eater but I used to eat,now I struggle with everything, the only problem I have with swollowing is lack of saliva so need to wash some foods down with water like bread and meat.

Its a no win situation I was eating no problem but had cancer on the back of my touge and behind my nose,now the treatment is getting rid of the cancer but has got rid of my taste and appertite.

We just got to go with it, put our trust in the doctors and hope it all goes well as it will with some of us and others it won't.

I wish you luck.

ARH