Radiotherapy both sides of neck

Hi, Lebgam, yes I had radiotherapy to both sides of my neck, many people on here have, I don't think this is unusual. The main thing to do is to keep your neck moisturised, my wife used to put Aloe vera gel on mine, it worked very well, only apply after each session not before.

Your treatment plan is  more or less the same as what many of us have had.

All the best with your treatment.

Regards Ray

Hi Sarah

Welcome to our small community sorry you’ve found yourself here but you’ve come to right place  

I had 35 radiotherapy sessions and 2 x10 hour cisplatin chemo for tonsil cancer with several affected lymph nodes. IJsselmeer treatment to both sides of neck 75% on right side snd 25% on left side. I had no surgery . Will copy a lady in who had tongue surgery snd just finished radiotherapy no chemo. Panch who will hopefully pop on later. 
The waiting  is the worst part honestly 

I have a blog details below 

hope this helps 

Hazel 

Thanks Ray and Hazel for your prompt replies, good to hear that some of us have had radiotherapy to both sides.  I will get some aloe vera gel on order!   Are there any other recommendations of things to help that are not available on the NHS, been ready about sodium bicarbonate, nebulisers....is this all available or do we have to purchase in advance.

Thanks

Sarah

Hi Sarah. And welcome to our community. 
both Hazel and I have a blog and there are posts about mouth preps to deat with radiotherapy  and all the medications we were on. 
You should be able to get most things from your hospital team to start with and from your GP afterwards. 
Some  of us “burn” a bit on our necks but most of us get away with little discomfort. The trick is to keep well moisturised abd you should get something like Diprobase from your hospital . Aloe Vera gel is great for sloshing on as soon as you get out of each session but nothing at all immediately before

Your tongue is classed as a central organ so you do get RT to both sides but usually far less to one side. 
Salivary damage is unavoidable as us inflammation of your mouth but you can mitigate. 
I found keeping my mouth clean helped and if you can get Caphosol from your oncologist straightaway treatment starts it should help the ulcers. 
Some folk use a nebuliser, I made do with a bowl of hot water and a towel. You will have to buy your own. 
A humidifier on your bedside table and a warm bedroom can help at night when your mouth gets sticky. 
Probably information overload so I apologise. 
Come back as problems arise. There is lots of help here. 
Oh, and one if the best things most of us found was to decamp to a spare bedroom 

Thanks Dani I will read both your and Hazel's blog. This is such a supportive forum it is great to have the experiences of others who have been through this arduous and worrying journey.

Thanks

Sarah

Sarah it’s not a walk in the park but it’s doable and lots of people get through it with fewer side effects

Hi Sarah I was given nebuliser by my hospital so worth checking with yours. From Amazon I bought curaprox very very gentle toothbrushes 5400 bristles.Plus a cool mist humidifier which was a godsend. There’s so much information your brain will be in information overload. 
where are you being treated if you want to tell us that is ? 
I was Leeds cancer centre now care referred back to local cancer unit at Wakefield .

Have you  a start date yet ?

Hazel

Hi Sarah.

i had a hemiglossectomy and neck dissection (left side) at the beginning of October and then 6 weeks of Radiotherapy.

You could see the machine start at the extreme left hand side of my neck & circle until it was directly above me, with the pattern in the “multi leaf collimeter” changing all the time. It the returned to the left.

It was certainly directed at most of tongue - new & old - but the effects have “shone” through to impact the right hand side of my mouth also.

I had no known lymph involvement but they thought I was T2 - ended up T3; bigger than they expected. Probably lost 1/2.

I’ve used Aveeno cream & Aloe Vera & luckily have just had some redness, but no pain & no breaking of the skin. So, neck-wise the 9nky issue is some thickening of the scar tissue from the neck dissection.

The chemotherapy might make things different - certainly in terms of taste change (I had/have salty,  it metallic) & nausea (I seem to have escaped that).

Happy to answer anything else that might occur to you (one week into “recovery”).

Stephanie x