My partner finished radio therapy three weeks ago and still suffers from a sore throat on and off. I am just wondering whether its normal and when he might expect it to subside.

Hi Cathy ,probaly due to RT ,but if he is feeling off colour or a bit sicky best to have it checked in case of thrush.Paul's throat was sore for a while off an on but he was also prone to thrush for a few months in his throat and mouth . Your GP can have a look and will tell you if u cant see any spot like thrush symptons in his throat it may be too far down ,but quite common.Hope this helps .

Bell .

Hi Cathy, I cant remember exactly how long my mouth took to settle down but it was more than 3 weeks. It's fairly early days yet but things will improve, it's just a bit of a slow process. Hagg.

Hi,
I finished RT ( 35 sessions) at the end of July 2008 and my throat was sore for the first few months from the treatment.

Now I have thrush and my throat gets sore when I eat. Swallowing food seems to scrape the coating off the back of my throat which is sore.

Good luck

Ken

hi cathy
the soreness can go on for a long time i'm afraid although some people don't seem to suffer as much as others.i finished my treatment in april last year and even now my mouth won't tolerate anything spicy not even a tiny amount of pepper.i did suffer for months from bad thrush and the treatment for that did help a great deal.i hope things settle down soon for your man. love shirl xxx

Many thanks to you all. I think he was just surprised yesterday as it seemed to have gotten better. At the moment it only hurts when he swallows. However he is suffering a great deal of irritation which is making him cough a lot.

Blimey what a journey!

hi Cathy it is a difficult time after RT and as the early weeks go in there will be differennt niggles .It is best to go with easy foods that that dont scrape or irritate while healing is taking place .My hubby had and is having copious mucous pouring down his throat when he sleeps and this in turn causes his throat to burn .We use a solution of warm water with a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to a pint of water, and a tiny pich of salt, u don't need to use the salt though. Gargling with this gently does help a couple of times a day and also helps keep thrush at bay .Also in Morning Paul likes the fruit corner yogurts straight from fridge, they are cooling,comforting and tasty and ease his throat straight away .

Bell .

Hi! Cathy,
I finished my R/T and Chemo September 13 2007 and was having difficulty with pain and eating up until January 2008 when I decided to try eating through the mouth instead of the PEG and with a bit of fluid managed to eat sparsely and enjoyed, I had to have my throat enlarged as it was still swollen and this enlargement made things a lot better, I then had the PEG removed and even though I couldn't eat much I managed but the pain stayed for a few months after that. I cut back on my pain relief over quite a time but your body is very reliable to the needs of relief and if there is pain take something.
Problems with the inside of my mouth stayed for a lot longer with dryness being the forever problem. The coughing did eventually die down but with no saliva what ever you do manage to cough up is alresdy dryish so that doesn't help & it's a bit like coughing up bean bag beads.
I hope this helps a bit and all the best to your partner and yourself.
Love
TREV

Thanks for all of the sharing. Sounds as if what he is experiencing is par for the course and he has just started to get the irritation tickle cough that Trev describes which has been keeping him awake poor love. Pain seems to only really to bother him towards the end of the day when swallowing.