Week 5, and the side effects have most certainly kicked in.
I can't believe I've still got 13 days to go, and then at least another 10 before the radiotherapy starts to leave my body.
I have no taste, my gag reflex is awful. Sores in my mouth, runny eyes, and exhaustion.
Thank goodness for the rig, I'm on 7 a day of the protein drinks taken via the rig.
I'm missing eating so much, but just.looking at food makes me feel sick.
I keep trying to try small bites, but the taste is rotten.
Does anyone have any tips to help me get through this tough part.
I have an antiseptic mouth wash which I use 4 times pee day. Paracetamol which is dissolvable and I'm drinking loads of water.
Cancer is just the pits....the treatment is brutal. I'm such a positive person, but I'm starting to fray at the sides.
Loveb o you all xx
Hi Ellie
It's awful but you just have to plod on day by day. I must say that for me the effects seemed to plateau at where you are and didn't get worse...just stayed the same.
By your stage I was on Morphine. Oramorph every for hours alternated with paracetamol through my NG tube. When I got breakthrough at night I was given MST twice a day which is extended release morphine. I must say it was a game changer. I pump fed at night which left me free to try to be human in the day without endless attention to feeding..
For my mouth I had Caphosol and Gelclair. That made a huge difference to the mouth sores. I was given Oxetecaine which is like an antacid with a local anaesthetic to numb my mouth but to be honest it made little difference as I didn't bother trying to eat for weeks.
Difflam is the usual mouth antiseptic. I used that religiously.
Try to get out even if just a turn round the block or the garden. It really does lift the spirits.
They tell you that you'll get better at two weeks. I have no idea why. RT has a residual effect for 2 to 3 weeks after you finish. Thern recovery is slow, sometimes forwards sometimes backwards but most of us are beginning to get through by six and turn a corner at 12. Then the slow plod back to normal.
I wasn't interested in food for at east six months. I ate to get better. If I could get it down it went down. I had lots of food tips from people on here so when you get to that stage just ask.
My consultant told me the cancer would take a year out of my life, that the treatment would be absolute rubbish but that he would cure me. It did, it was and he did.
It's worth it.
I am NED at four plus years and living well.Though that seems to be as far as the moon where you are it does fly by.
Deep breath. Day by day and you'l get there
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
I wrote a blog about my cancer. just click on the link below
https://todaymycoffeetasteslikechristmasincostarica.com
Hi Elly,
you are almost there 
️
it will be bit bumpy, but stay positive and focus. You have this,
best luck
marta x
Hi Ellie,
You must've finished treatment last week? Hope you're coping - it is pants, especially the first few weeks into recovery. You can only take it 1 day at a time to use the well-worn cliché! It will sometimes be 2 steps forward and 1 step back, but hang on in there, in a few weeks you'll be seeing progress ... it may feel like you're in a bit of a fog sometimes but it does get better!
I was very pragmatic for my first 3 weeks of recovery - I kept very low expectations, such as - going downstairs a couple of times a day and stepping into the garden and filling up my own water bottle! By week 3 I drove myself to get my RIG flushed and week 4 I booked a manicure!
I had a similar feeling towards food ... the chemo made me nauseous (I had 2x cisplatin day 1 and day 21) ... and just as I was getting over that by week 6 of treatment the horrid mucous started and lasted for a few weeks then just disappeared! But my stomach had shrunk by then so I just kept up my 5 or 6 fortisps per day, then added soups, then overcooked spaghetti, noodles, soft boiled eggs ... mostly I couldn't even taste the difference between them I just ate robotically and regularly - food is fuel for a while. Three months following treatment was my birthday and I ate a meal out for the first time (November); by Christmas I ate a 3 course meal; by May this year I demolished an 8-course tasting menu and went whitewater rafting! We are all different and we all have different set backs, but you will get there if you keep your sense of humour and take it one day at a time 
Hugs and keep plodding along (even if it just means walking between the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen for a few weeks!!)
Helen x
That's great Ellie - Look forward to your manicure, it's good to do a few 'normal' things after such an ordeal as this treatment does take over your life for a couple of months or so! But you will get tired all of a sudden, the RT fatigue is real!
Even if you're not back to eating within a month or 2 for now, just try what you can as it tests your tastebuds and helps fire them back up; and continue to drink the vitamin/calorie drinks until you're back onto eating again.
I started with soup - broths are good, just boil up bones as this gives you so much of what you need to heal. My husband used to cook the meat, then he and my son and the dog would eat it and then he'd boil the bones for me for soup for the remaining bits of meat and marrow LOL! Then I moved onto those crap packets of super noodles as they just slip down (good when you're still feeling sor); then overcooked pasta with a creamy sauce, or just grated cheese and eggs and cream/Philadelphia with buttered crumpets are okay after a few weeks I found.
It was a while before I tasted anything at all, so don't be surprise, just see as your job to eat a little each day to begin with. Sometimes I still had to battle the nausea. As soon as I could handle it, I started with fatty and protein foods like avocado, made my own smoothies, lasagne, roast pots or chunky chips or fries with mayo. Your taste buds will also come and go - mine still do - so something may taste ok then next time you eat it the flavour has changed/ gone. It's about trying a bit of something and moving on if it loses it's flavour.
I definitely preferred chocolate/sweet stuff before treatment - now I prefer salty/savoury food. It's good for me as I only taste the first 3 or four bites of a chocolate bar, whereas I would easily demolish a family-sized bag of malteasers in a sitting 
Good luck with your last few days then get your head down and listen to podcasts for a few weeks, prop yourself up with pillows and make a nest. Make sure you've got plenty of boxes of tissues for all the spitting you've got to look forward to! It doesn't last long!! One my worst day, I got my laptop and booked a seaside break for between Christmas & NYE to look forward to with some underground trampolining in the slate mins in North Wales LOL!
Helen x
