New and scared stiff

Hi Susan

The easiest way is to click on your name then click on Profile and add your journey there.

Alternatively the Blog threads are HERE where you can start a new thread of your own

You can edit this as time goes on adding updates.

Please......the RT trip is not easy but it is doable and there are lots of people here who have survived and thrived, some with an easy passage, some less easy, but all have have got through it.

Add to you profile and let us help you.

Hi Susan Dani had my explained about updating your profile that’s a good place to start welcome to our small community I had 35 radiotherapy sessions and. 2 chemo it’s hard but if I can do it anyone can. The treatment when you are having it doesn’t hurt and we all react differently to side effects. I am 28 month post radiotherapy and living my life to the fullest. many questions please adk

hazel x

I do sympathise Susan. Reading others’ accounts of their own journeys can be alarming. It certainly scared me! But everyone’s cancer is slightly different and consequently everyone’s journey is slightly different and radiotherapy is a very, very effective treatment. Just hang onto that thought whilst that machine is (painlessly) whirring around your head in the weeks to come! 

Mine was not as bad as I was expecting, and I got some great advice from some of those who’d been before me. So take heart.

‘Prepare for the worst and hope for the best’ has been my mantra so far and, although I’m not out of the woods yet, it has served me well. 

Wishing you all the best. 

Hi Mark. Thanks for adding your post. Susan posted on the New to Community page and I directed her to your post from yesterday. You're our most recent  "graduate" ( sorry ) and you have come through in better nick than you thought.

Hiya susan

I just want to say i totally understand where you are coming from, i was the same- i read the posts and actually posted that i was considering refusing treatment!!

Here i am 3.5 months later, eating a full sunday dinner, the only caveat being that i need water with my chicken

The treatment is not easy, but it is definitely manageable, everyones experiences differ but generally it seems to be about the fourth week that soreness kicks in.

Personally it was the end of week four, and yes i had some rough times, but by 2 months post treatment i was over the worst of it with regards to pain.

Speak to your team about your concerns, and when your journey does start, please do not be shy about telling the team if you need more pain relief

I suffered in silence on cocodamol, when i eventually asked for and got morphine it made a dramatic difference.

Also as cancers go - head and neck is one of the most treatable there is.

Trev

Hi!

Thanks for replying. Any suggestions for pre-empting side effects or is it that you either get them or you don't?

I tried codeine (which cocodamol has in it I think) and the constipation was worse then the throat pain.  How is morphine administered if not in hospital?

I have so many questions but trying not to read all the alarming things that can happen. As you said, you think treatment would be too bad!

Am having trouble working my way round this site.

Did you do a blog I can read?

Thanks, 

Susan

Hi Susan. If you are on opioids you NEED laxatives. The usual ones we get are Laxido or Movicol and you take them regularly. Your team will supply them. The morphine we get is oral liquid Oramorph and long acting MST which comes in granules to mix with water or tablets. 

Thank you - the consultant didn't tell me that - just prescribed high dose codeine and I was left to it! Aghhh!!!!

Hi Susan

What i found worked was taking laxido every day,  even when i was not constipated.

As for pre-empting side effects, for chemo i took my anti nausea meds religiously, even when i didnt feel sick and as a result i only had mild nausea once.

For radio- lots of difflam helped, and using tonnes of moisturiser on my neck prevented burns

But, main thing to know is things get better.

Treb

Thank you...... these are the sorts of helpful ideas I am searching for. 

Pre-emptive strike, as it were.... or "pre-warned is pre-armed" 

Susan