Hi everybody,

Almost 5 weeks after RT and although I am able to swallow I cannot eat any solids and the diet consist of soup with scandishake to make up the calories!Obviously one of the problems is the mouth drying up completely even with baby food.The worst part is a really bad burning sensation on the whole of my tongue even when I drink soup!! Has anybody encountered the same problem?I am seeing the shrink on Thursday as I am seriously pissed off with the whole but I don't really think it will be of any use!! thing.
I try to sleep all day!! At least I am in another world for most of the time!!!
Can it get anyworse then this ????
All my love to fellow sufferers and without your words of encouragement god knows where I'll be ??
Bye for now
LONI

Evening Loni. What colour is your tongue? If its furred & white, its possible you have Thrush, which is common, due to lack of saliva. If Thrush, you will need to get treatment from your GP. Meantime, a soothing mixture of Soda Bicarbonate (1 teaspoon to 1 pint of water) to swill round your mouth & spit out, frequently, should help. Let us know how you get on. Fran

Hi Loni

You are experiencing a problem Pauline and others have described. It could be the dryness itself, a fungal infection as Fran says or neurological side effect to the radiotherapy if the tongue or its nerve supply were in the radiation path. Pauline found drinking water helped. You could try using a lubricating mouthwash like MuGard or Gelclair use for alleviating discomfort of mucositis.

quote:

Head and Neck Radiotherapy - Week 1 of Radiation Treatment
7 Sep 2002 ... Just noticing a strange burning sensation on the tip of my tongue.....feels like I've had hot chillies... tingling, burning tongue tip....no ...
www.fashion-era.com/Radiotherapy_1.htm


Head and Neck Radiotherapy - Weeks 2 to 6 of Radiation Treatment
... burning tongue tip. Skin feeling better after 2 days off the radiotherapy. ... At night my throat was raw and the dry burning tongue easily wakened me. ...
www.fashion-era.com/Radiotherapy_2.htm -

Best wishes
Vinod

Hi Pauline. I finished my radiotherapy and chemo in February. I had a lot of burning issues with my tongue (I had a graft), and suffered from plenty of issues with my mouth and throat. The mouthwashes really do help - I am still doing them, and will no doubt carry on for some long time. When it got very bad, my doctor added xylocaine to it - that is an anaesthetic substance. That obviously was a great relief! I now only have the burning in certain situations (trying out wine, for example... no go! also the fluoride gel I soak my teeth in is still quite painful, but it is improving). I think that's the main thing... it will get better, but you do have a difficult time to go through. I found I had to keep to very bland foods, they could not include even a hint of spice, vinegar, lemon etc; nor too much onion; so try keeping an eye on what you eat and see if you can spot things that hurt (tomatoes, fruit...). The other thing I have found really helpful is fizzy water and coca-cola (which I NEVER drank before!). This is not specifically helpful with the tongue pain, I guess, but it helps the mouth with the saliva problems.