my mom has been doing Radiation and Chemop for 2 and a half weeks and can get no relief from her throat burning she can hardly eat and is in constant pain so much so that they are thinking of taking her off for four days, I am pretty affraid that she may choke as she says she has bouts of choking on her wter from the muscles that help you swallow are not working right ?
has anyone heard of this or know any thing to reduce the pain?

hi there
oh poor mum i know how she is feeling and i think most of us has suffered from this during radiotheraphy.can you doctors give her some strong pain killers to help her?sipping water not drinking it does help with the pain a bit.i hope she is pain free soon. love shirl xxx

I agree with shirl... it's a common issue with the radiology... some type of liquid meds would work nicely for pain management, but even water feels like it has 'bones" in it as the throat is raw (burned/cooked). I had strong reactions to some of the IMRT even to the extent that they thought the machine was "whacked". So having a break I saw was common where I did my RT in tampa.

I would press for the pain management as soon as you can... but she won't get around the slowness of drinking(sipping) water... it will be a chore....encourage her if you can without pushing...she is probably making every effort on her own with poor results.... so encourage! encourae! encourage!!

if she isn't eating well have her drink Ensures, Boost or some kind of milky drink that has calories as she will begin to loose weight (if she doesn't have a peg(feeding tube)). Nutrition is important for her healing....it may take her 30 minutes to get one of those little drinks down...

so my friend...wishing you well as you support your mom....

best wishes.

bob (pembo)

I feel for you more than I can type - my father has had two chem and 7 RT and already he is having trouble sleeping and eating - his attitude is amazing but I can hear it in hos voice - he is in pain - I wish I had more advice but I guess I wanted you to know I understand - and none of us are alone!

My dad has caught up with your mom - he is going in today to push for something more in the pain management - the crushed vicodin take him a half an hour to get down and don't do very much...... his attitude is still the best but boy it is TOUGH to have to watch him go through this...just had to type (share)....

Dear Keithachrist,
You have received some great advise from the folks out here and this advise would give a lot of relief to your mum as they have all been through the phase.
I decided to add my two bit on how to control the pain without pain killers. However, I would suggest you talk to your doctor before even going ahead. Ask your doctor if she be allowed to spray xylocaine (it comes in both forms- get and spray). What it does is act as a local anesthesia and totally dumbs the pain making it easy to eat or drink with out pain. I was a regular user of this and it worked wonderfully with me - though now I do not require it as I feed through a peg.
Take care and give love to your mum.
Warm regards,
Ananth