problem eating.. 30ml fortisip 4 x a day enough ?

have you had any other treatment apart from the surgery to your neck? 

Hi, my dietician contacted a company called Fresenius Home care,  they supply direct to my house a supplement called Fresubin 2kal Drink they have 400 calories and 20g protein in each 200ml bottle. I have found the fruits of the forest and vanilla flavours much more palatable than the ensure drinks that I could not stand. They also supplied me with a chocolate flavour powder which you mix with milk called Scandishake. That does  taste like chocolate milkshake, but that was not as calorific. At my worst I was having 4 fresubin drinks and 1 Scandishake a day. At that stage most of it was going through the PEG as I could barely swallow anything. Five months after treatment I am still having 2 Fresubin drinks to maintain my weight, I can now eat many more things but much smaller portions. I don’t think I’ll ever manage a bacon sandwich or pizza again as bread is just to doughy and I can’t swallow it. I had to have a second mask made halfway through my treatment because I had lost too much weight. For me it was because none of the medication they gave me for nausea seemed to work and I just couldn’t keep anything down. Things do slowly get better, I’m back at work full time and looking forward to a couple of holidays hopefully with some sunshine. 

Kay

Hi why couldnt you swallow hun was that from a neck disectomy? Its not nice not being able to swallow, i had surgery 5 weeks ago but had problems and now find it difficult to swallow lumps, so yeh have fortisip last few days to boost intake x

No mine was caused by the radiotherapy, I have  fibrosis of the esophagus and my epiglottis no longer fully covers my windpipe when I swallow, so was choking on food and water. Swallowing exercises are slowly improving this. 

So radiotherapy that treated the cancer caused these problems? Or were the problems there before, how horrible and scary this must have been for you hun i just cant imagine, i had a neck dissectomy for gland and lympth removal and niw left swollen and stiffness in and around neck and niw when i swallow anything with the smallest of bits it feels like their caught at the bottom of throat where the indent is in your neck at the start of your chest and its not nice, scared to eat anything ive lost weight since op, im hoping when swelling and stiffness calms down it will ease but not sure x

It was the radiotherapy, when I was first diagnosed I had no symptoms whatsoever, only went to doctors because I had a lump come up in my neck that got  bigger quickly over a few weeks. I was T2N1M0 primary site base of tongue and spread to 1 lymph node. We are all different in the amount and type of side effects from the treatment. Also with salivary glands not working properly, that makes  it harder to swallow as well. x

Hi. You MUST get those calories down you. I have at least 4 Ensure drinks a day which equates to about 1200 cals. 2 down feeding peg and 2 I can just about manage to drink although I have been advised there is evidence some which I swallow is probably seeping into my lungs. I was diagnosed 8 years ago with throat cancer and following tonsillectomy had 6 weeks radiotherapy then the next year a right side neck dissection, the following year a left neck dissection and last year removal of my soft palate. No teeth left but just had my new dentures fitted to implants which were inserted same time as palate removed. Onward and upward I say. Get those Ensures down you and speak to your dietician asap.

Omg you poor love, i get stressed and panic when i feel bits at the bottom of my throat, as said had right side disectomy 5 weeks ago but had to get rushed back in as it ruprured for anither 3 hr op that was 23rd then got infection and then on 3rd had another op to open and clean a re staple still no joy wound still oozing and they took a couple of staples out so it could run naturaly now i have a gaping wound no ear as that was removed as the melanoma was on my ear, had parotid gland removed and 62 lympth nodes, ive been told im going to have immunotherapy but iv rsad a couple of stories about radiotherapy and it frightens the life out of me as neither yours or theirs are very nice xx

Hi i had melanoma on top of my ear gp said 3 times nothing to worry about then referred me, 10th dec got diagnosed 19th dec removed 90 per cent of right ear then on 3rd jan had pet scan to be told it had spread oo 23rd jan had the rest of my ear removed my patotid gland and 62 lympth nodes from neck and face, when got back from surgery from vomiting so much neck ruotured rushed back to theatre for 3 hrs, then got infection in wound and on 3rd feb another op to clean out and re staple, but it still oozed from wound so they took a couple osf staples out to let it ooze naturaly, it did omg, and today i still have a wound that is very slowly healing but still red a raw they say its healing though,  its not somthing i would wish on anyone my lifes changed so much, im back there today which im glad as ive woken up last 2 days with a new pain in my head x

You poor thing

From what I can gather immunotherapy is doing great things for melanoma so take heart nanny and see what your team says. I don’t think they do radio for this but I might be wrong.