Week 4 - Post treatment

Hi Alfieangel

Sorry you have found yourself  in hospital and are having a tough time at the moment but it is more common than you think. I too found week 4 the hardest when the side effects of the radiotherapy started to lock in. I also ended up in hospital for a week with dehydration because of the difficulty I had eating and drinking because of my painful mouth. In fact it turned out to be a good thing as they monitored me and took me along to my radiotherapy session daily. I did not lose too much weight as a result.

I felt very sorry for myself while in hospital. I discussed with my doctor stopping the radiotherapy but he said that I would have had 4 weeks treatment for no effect so stopping the radiotherapy did not seem such a good idea after all. I then decided to cope by doing a countdown and taking it week by week and this helped along with better pain relief.

If you have a nasal gastric tube or a RIG now is the time to start using it and forget about trying to swallow food. I had neither of these things as my cancer was not the same as yours and my swallow was O.K. it was just getting the food past my very painful mouth.

Discuss your options with your doctor about pain relief and hang in there as this will pass. You can do this.

Sending you positive thoughts.

Lyn

Hi. Week 4 was when I ended up in hospital over new year to get rehydrated and have an NG tube put in. I had to stay there 4 days as all the consultants and nutritionists were on holiday. I had my analgesia titrated properly and was shown hiw to use my tube. I never looked back. Once my pain was managed and I was getting fed properly I felt a million times better. That tube stayed in for 8 weeks. It saved my life. 
My SLT gave me a list of swallowing exercises to do but there was no way I could actually swallow food for weeks. 
by six weeks after treatment end I was very much better and swallowing soft food 

Hope this helps. 

Thank you.  It's such a help when you realise you're not alone. It's a lonely place at times, hope yore well 

Thank you. Maybe it's simply early days.   X

Hi Alfie

I am getting along quite well now thanks for asking. It is about 2 years since I finished radiotherapy so there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel.

Still have a few side effects from the radiotherapy, the usual ones, dry mouth, some change in taste but am back into life reasonably normally. I have a few side effects from my actual ops as I have had 3 but coping O.K. with them too.

Keep hanging in there, we are all here to support you.

Lyn

Hi Alfie. Keep ranting on here we’ve been there done it got the t shirt  so to speak.week 3-4 I had a ng tube fitted it was my lifesaver literally.Are you on regular painkillers I was on co codomol and oramorph by week 4. 
Hazel x