Chemoradiotherapy recovery

Hello Holidays, 

A  few of us in the Bladder Cancer Forum may have had chemo and radiotherapy but it is unlikely to have many, if any similarities with your treatment. I know that many of us here initially struggle with the seemingly excessive hydration often recommended for bladder cancer post treatment, although it's not so much a difficulty in physically getting it down, more of a struggle finding  something thats more palatable than straight water. Many here say that Lemon Barley Water is their saviour, provided that the sugar content does not cause  other issues. 

There are lots of separate cancer forums on the Macmillan website. Perhaps a Community Champion could point you to one which may help you more  - if you have entered this one by mistake.

I hope you find help soon.  Best wishes,  Ray 

Holidays said:

,Has anyone else had this and if so is there anything i can do to help .

Hi. This can be a real problem due to the damage done to the back of your throat. Try something thicker than water like a smoothie or even the awful fortisip/ensure you’re putting down your rig. 
Are you doing your swallow exercises to strengthen your swallow muscles? 
Six weeks is still very early and a lot of us were still not swallowing anything at this stage. 

RayMK said:

There are lots of separate cancer forums on the Macmillan website. Perhaps a Community Champion could point you to one which may help you more  - if you have entered this one by mistake.

He’s in the right place. His post says he’s had base of tongue cancer. 

Hi, Thanks for your answer i have not had my swallowing exercises yet but am seeing my community nursing team tomorrow 

Thanks for offering that help RayMK. One of our Online Community Champions let us know about this thread, and so I have moved it over to the Head and neck cancer forum, where similar treatment experiences are more likely.

I hope the move away from the Bladder cancer forum helps some of our Head and neck cancer forum members to share their experience and advice with you soon, Holidays.

As always, don't forget you can speak to our clinically experienced Cancer Information Nurse Specialists if you would like some support from Macmillan directly.

You can get in touch by calling the Macmillan Support Line on freephone 0808 808 00 00. It's open from 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week. Just select the option to speak to one of our Cancer Information Nurse Specialists, and you will be connected as soon as the next one is available.

Thank you 

Yes, thanks to the Community Champion who moved the post from the Bladder Cancer Forum where it appeared earlier this afternoon. 

Ah....sorry it looked like you had just posted here at random. My apologies

It takes time to recover, 2 weeks is very early in terms of recovery, the recovery pace will pick up as you start to get stronger, choking fits and gagging were par for the course for me (and many others I suspect) but this subsided in time.

My PEG tube supplied me with calories and hydration for some time, sipping water may be unpleasant but it helps to keep the swallow muscles moving.

Beesuit said:

Six weeks is still very early

Holidays sorry...I misread that entirely. Two weeks is just at the peak of RT effects. Don't worry about not being able to swallow.....it's normal. At two weeks post Tx I was still asleep.