Husband finished treatment for heck/month cancer 2 weeks ago, 35 radiotherapy sessions and 10 chemo's over 9 weeks. He hasn't eaten 'food; since December 18th, and has, of course, lost so much weight (28 kilos). he is trying with food but the closest we've got was a cup a soup 2 days. i almost danced a jig!! the main thing he says is that anything solid feels like trying to eat sand spread on cardboard...just makes him retch, does anyone have any ideas? i am doing the ice cream, chilled coffee, diluted fruit juices, high protein shakes etc. He is managing to eat 2 weetabix squished in very cold milk..thats it. having already read a little on here I can see tis is very normal! Not that anything has felt very normal for the last few months. We are rather adrift in getting through this as we were spending a year in Greece when it started, and as we'd let relatives move into our UK house, we stayed here for the treatment...which is fine in itself, but there is no support or communications...he just went for the treatments and when it was finished they just said 'off you go - see you in 2 months'. At the start we asked about side affects, what to expect, and they just waved us away 'Oh, maybe a little nausea, maybe he will lose his hair, nothing much'....!!!!! We have no idea really what 'stage' his cancer is, the only thing we were told was that the tretamnet has an 85% success rate...bit vague! After a PET scan we do know it hadn't spread anywhere else (vital organs, bones etc) but was in the lymph glands in his neck too. Its also the HPV one too, we know that much. By end of treatment he's also now got a some sort of mouth fungus which causes his mouth to fill up with horrible snot-wallpaper paste type stuff (sorry if anyone's eating!) which he has to get rid of a dozen times a day. He wasn't given any medication or tablets when the treatment finished either, which seems strange. Anyway, bit lost, as I am sure everyone is once you get on the cancer carousel, so any tips or advice gratefully received!
Are you still in Greece? I am at a loss at how the dieticians have allowed your husband to lose so much weight!
Two weeks after Tx end means the radiotherapy is still working so your husband is at the peak of acute side effects. How is his pain?
Can you get Fortisips or Ensures? He will need seven a day. That might make getting food down him easier.
I presume your husband wasn't offered a feeding tube. It's not too late to ask for a nasogastric tube to get some replacement food into him.
The "snot" is a normal reaction to the treatment and will eventually pass in a few weeks. Sipping water, fizzy spring water and using a nebuliser (or steaming over hot water) will all help. Having a humidifier in the bedroom at night is useful too.
You mention fungus. It would be worth checking he hasn't got thrush. if he has he needs Fluconazole, rather than Nystatin which is what a lot of GPs prescribe not knowing that radiation induced thrush is an animal different from normal thrush
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
Hi, hello! and Thanks you...yes still in Greece. They did have him on some medicine (which he hated) called Itrazol, he had about 3-4 bottles of that but it ran out about a week ago, and as we cant get more (need prescription , Dr's on the mainland being elusive) we thought we'd see how he went without it...it didn't seem to be doing much, and theres no change now he has stopped taking it......we'll see what happens there. 
To say this is a learning curve is putting it mildly...cancer just kidnaps your life doens't it????
Itrazol
Yes, that’s similar to Fluconazole. The reason it hadn’t helped is that he likely doesn’t have thrush. As I said the snot is normal. Try the other things I said. All you can do is keep trying different liquid foods.
It’s a shame the system is such that you have both been abandoned. When do you return to the U.K.? For all its failings the NHS usually comes up trumps with HNC.
Just make sure your husband is really in top of oral hygiene, keeping his mouth clean and brushing with high fluoride toothpaste like Duraphat or Morningside 5000 three times daily.
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
Thanks Beesuit ( I have a great image of you in my head!!!) I have emailed his 3 medicos in athens, asking about Fluconazole. I also asked HH is they ever even weighed him, during the 10 weeks...he said no, they just told him he looked like he was losing too much weight!! He had to attend the treatment clinics alone, staying in Athens Monday-Friday each week, while I stayed with our 2 cats on the island we'd set up home on..its a very long and twisty story!! If anyone tells you to 'follow your dream'...tell them to naff off!!! ha ha. Thanks again.
s
Ha ha.
Good one.
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
