Recovery

Hi Kelly. Sorry to read about your friend. 
8 weeks is really early still so please reassure her that there is nothing wrong with her recovery so far. I turned a bit of a corner at twelve weeks and I too had just RT

I hope she is still on top of her pain relief and mouth hygiene. They make all the difference. Fatigue is down to the radiation and lack of energy due to not eating properly and will get better but very slowly. 
If she is still losing weight maybe she should increase her meal replacement drinks. I was on Fortisips and was told to have 2500 calories a day. 
Is she managing any soft food orally? 
Ready Brek ( softer than standard porridge) made with full cream, poached eggs, scrambled eggs made with Philly to keep them soft. Add butter or cream to everything. Avocado banana smoothies go down easily and you can add peanut butter for extra calories and protein. Soup but not tomato. 

Something to try. 

Hi Kelly,

Your friend is on a fairly normal pathway following radiotherapy as far as I can tell. Like Beesuit mine changed after around the three month mark. It went from 'pain' to 'discomfort' and I was off all my meds at that point. Only challenging food seemed to be difficult after that. I still preferred softer and liquid foods for another months or so. After that the pain was less significant and the thing that really bugged me was things "not tasting quite right". I'm not just over six months and have no pain. Taste and dry mouth are lingering somewhat but are not stopping me getting on with life. The weight loss is expected in most people from what I know and fatigue is normal. Don't forget the food is fuel thing so even if hard to eat or not it's not tasty it's still really important. 

Hi As the others have said it’s early days and par for the course. The tiredness is radiation fatigue. I found a 20 minute Power Nap helped me sometimes more than Ince a day. Re throat and mouth pain . She been checked for oral thrush   Plus she needs to be taking *  sufficient pain relief it’s a marathon nit a sprint my blog be,ie might help both of you. 

Take  care Hazel x

Pain duration varies from patient to patient, after 4 months the throat and mouth pain started to be a lot less troublesome, still have some little issues 2 years after ending radiotherapy treatment for throat cancer (HPV16 PLUS).

Oramorph and Difflam helped calm any ongoing pain