Hey everyone, just a quick question. My friend is on his last week of radiation. He is very tired and having a hard time keeping weight on. Throwing up some after tube feedings. He is having some blood when he coughs...is this a symptom of radiation or something more serious. Doctor says the tumor on his tonsil is shrinking.Any advice would help. thank u!

Spoke to my friend, doctor says it is normal. Last radiation treatment tomorrow. Thanks anyway

Hi Maur

The radiation can cause ulceration in the lining tissue of the mouth and throat subjected to treatment - this could account for the blood seen.

Best wishes
Vinod :coffee:

Dr. Vinod,

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate it. Rod was finished with his radiation yesterday. He is at his worst.His is very tired and his throat is raw! When the doctor checked him, he said """this is exactly what we were hoping for""" in regards to the tumor shrinking. So I guess that's a good sign but will they still have to remove the lymph glands? Can the cancer still spread while he is in treatment? Also the doctor is waiting a month to do the scans, why the wait? He will have the feeding tube for a while...he can't wait to eat!!! izza: He can't talk very well so i am unable to ask him very much. We only talk a few minutes at a time. Anything you can tell me will help. Also what is the chance of reoccurence? Thanks so much!

Also...How long after all treatment can Rod get his teeth? :boxedin: He is really looking forward to that!

Hello maur

Rod will have take things one at a time, heal first, then swallowing improves, speech improves but how well will depend on reactions to the radiotherapy. When he can have new teeth wil depend on the advice from the oncologist, at least a 6 to 12 month wait I would think. Please ask these questions of his doctors who will know more about Rod's case and treatment.

Best wishes
Vinod :coffee:

Hi Maur

I know that it has been a while since you posted this question regarding coughing up blood with radiation...but I thought that I would just share my experience as a future reference for any others who may ask the same thing. My Oncologist told me a while after my Treatment had finished that my reaction was of his most extreme cases...& all that time I didn't want to complain about the pain for fear that I would seem like a hypocondriac!(if thats how you spell it?!) During & even once treatment had ceased I had a terrible time with coughing up blood. I live by myself and some mornings would suddenly at 3am sit up in bed from a coughing attack and just vomit up handfuls of bright red blood...oh how my lovely crispy white linen detested those days :bomb: I was so scared & use to ask God if I was about to die, it was such an awful time. It was just amazing how completely involuntary all the coughing was, and I was at a loss as to where all the blood was coming from...but hey I'm still here to complain about it as my Doc says and thats the important thing for all of us that have to go through such an horrendous experience as Radiation to the mouth & throat....absolutely WITHOUT A DOUBT it was a taste of what hell is like, actually I tell people that I have experienced hell in the first instance.... so it's best to be a good person in life cause 6 weeks was hell enough...eternal hell I imagine is only for those without a brain :help:
or for whom like to be cooked alive :thinking:

One other thing to add also is the CONSTANT dribbling, I use to wake up thinking that maybe somebody had called fire & they mistook me for it ....& I was the dumping ground for all of that water!! :ugh: Also in hospital after the op my younger sister use to gain great pleasure from holding the suction machine at my nose just to see if she could beat the saliva b4 it FELL out of my mouth!!! At least the sound of this bought some humour into my hospital room, one of those times when nobody knew wether they should laugh or not, then I would start my silent chuckle(even though laughing with a feeding tube & trachie is very painful)then everybody else would let out a roar!!. See take a positive from a negative ( : Sounds grose? This dribbling thing was one of the most appalling things I can remember to date...I soon learnt to leave dignity at the door! Strange I went from tidal waves of saliva to a desert desperate for moisture!! :banghead: Peeling your gums from your teeth upon waking is really quite uncomfortable I can say

I can hear some of you laughing at this because you know exactly what I mean!! Well if we don't laugh we might cry...whatever helps, even if for this moment while I humour myself

Love to you all, Kelley x

Kelley,

Thanks so much for the reply! Everything you described sounds exactly like what my friend is going through! He had all his teeth pulled first so now he wakes up trying to pull his tongue from the roof of his mouth! It seems like he had every side effect from the radiation...dry mouth, mouth sores, loss of facial hair(that just happened 4 weeks after tx)very thick mucus which he seems to be choking on at times, very sore throat and no swallowing! :banghead: He wants to eat so bad. He was small to begin with and he is self-consious about it and now he is thinner. He really wants to gain wait! He would love to have teeth also but has to wait on that. He was pretty depressed for a while but since he is out of treatment it seems to be a little better. Your attitude is so positive, that's great! Continued good health to you and thanks again! Maur

Hey Maur

Thought I'd just see how your friend is doing? I hope that he is feeling a little better with each day, if not each week. How is his sleeping? That is the one thing that took a long time for me to be able to do....sleep for more than 20 mins at a time. It was amazing the first time that I slept a whole night!! By the way when I read about the 'thickness'of your friends saliva I remembered how bad that actually was....so, so, so thick. I remember my mum being so shocked by this, & infact even to this day it is thick...just different to how it use to be.

Thinking of you & your friend
Kelley ( :

Kelley,

Thank you so much for asking and thinking of us. He is not real good but because of personal problems in his life not the cancer. His girl decided she could not deal with this and basically is treated him very bad. How you could do the things she is doing to someone let alone someone who is scared and sick is just heartless! Anyway, he is back to work. I am a little worried but his doc says it's okay.He takes his cooler with his boost and ensure and alot of water. He is doing wood work and the doc says to wear a mask but I am not sure if he is doing that...I tell him over & over! :banghead: He can taste pretty good but the swallowing is a big problem still. He wants to eat so bad izza: He is sipping on broth and tea every now & then. He has not had his scans done yet and I am very afraid waiting for that to happen. He was checked by his doc who looked down his throat and said it looks really good but I am still so concerned about the lymph nodes. I am afraid of it coming back, I know I shouldn't dwell on that but is it true once they use chemo & radiation that can't use it again? He doesn't worry about this as much as I do and I am glad. I want him to concentrate on getting well and not worrying about cancer everyday. How does someone that has gone through what he and all of you went through do that? I pray all the time for him to find happiness and to have someone in his life that would really love and support him..I think this would be a little easier. Sometimes it is hard for me to keep trying to pull him up all by myself. But anyway he is getting better everyday and I think his job is helping him. His side effects are slowly going away. Thank you so much Kelley for asking about him. Continued good health to you & God bless.Thanks again, Maureen