how long for throat to heal

Douglas11658

Hello folks I had 6 wks of radiation for sqamous cell carcinoma in situ. I was very fortunate to have caught it very early stage 1. I'm just curious how long others have found for the throat to be back to normal if that's possible. I can eat some things others i pay for eating later. I have trouble sleeping because of a very sore throat. I have some fatigue but can deal with that. I am 3 weeks out of treatments.

Douglas11658

Any information would be

Any information would be appreciated.

Douglas11658

Btw my cancer was in my

Btw my cancer was in my larynx

 

Hondo

Welcome to CSN H&N

 

It is hard to say how long will it take to heal because we all hear different; the norm is anywhere between 3 months to a year and sometimes longer. Just keep trying and before long you will be eating and tasting again.

 

Tim

 

phrannie51

Douglas...welcome to the club....

the club nobody wants to join .  Your throat isn't going to be sore forever, but you are still a "baby" in recovery.  You are probably still cooking from the radiation...but that should come to an end anytime now.  Once you stop cooking you'll see a gradual let up on the sore throat.  Give it another couple of weeks.

p

CivilMatt

Welcome

Hi Douglas,

Welcome to the H&N forum, I am sorry that you are here, but glad that you finished treatments.

Throat back to normal?  If that is pre-treatment normal, then never.  If that is “new normal” with all the bells and whistles, then awhile. 

The bottom line is, it does slowly improve to a point that you can actually fool people into thinking everything is insitu normal.  Most of my throat, tongue and mouth discomfort started to improve (slowly) immediately following treatment.

I tried to eat constantly and often, sometimes with good luck others not.

I slept very well during and after treatments.  I now take a couple of xylimelts at bedtime for dry mouth.

At 3 months you are fresh meat and may take some time to turn the corner, but if you look at everything you may already notice small improvements.

Good luck,

Matt

KC61713

how long for throat to heal

Hi Douglas,   I also had 6 wks. of radiation. Time, moderation & patience were key elements to recovery. It's still pretty early, if your throat pain is internal you might try a soft diet & supplementing w/ Carnation high protein instant breakfast drinks. They're relatively low on sugar & don't leave the "chaulky" residue in you mouth. I also recently started using Aloe water, as I found regular spring water left my mouth washed out, dry & sore (especially where the last two rad treatments were focused). The good Aloe drink only has 9g of sugar (imported by Rhee Bros.) whereas a not so pleasant (rather bitter) competitors version contains 23g. If your neck is also sore from the burn & peeling area Aloe Vera gel really helped. After 4 wks. out I started supplementing my g-tube intake w/soft stuff (warm soup & rice). I was actuall 9 wks. out before comfortably resuming regular food again.   Best of luck,

danc1962

Time to heal

Hi Doug. Sounds like you are in about the same situation as me. I am a week and a half out of the last radiation treatment. I am trying so hard to heal quickly. I just started drinking water in good volume about a week ago. I ate a tiny portion of mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy for Thanksgiving. All these were accomplishments to me. I will never look at a glass of water the same again. The two worst things for me are no taste and the darn mucus that keeps forming almost continuously. I found for some strange reason the painkillers ( Percocets in my case) relieve the mucus forming for several hours and offers relief. I used Aquaphor on the radiation burns on the outside to help them heal quickly. I started using that well before treatments were over. It helped tremendously. The last week and a half I have switched to 1 percent silver sulfadiazine cream, prescribed by my radiation oncologist. It is wonderful. The burns are 90 percent gone if not a little more. I don't think I could advise you on how long it takes or anyone can. I just thought sharing what has been helpful to me might be helpful to you. There is also a magic mouthwash that numbs your throat and can make swallowing easier. I used it for about a week and a half but don't need it right now to swallow. I have been pumping about 2300 calories through a PEG tube to maintain weight and keep up nutrition. I used the tube for hydration as well and still do even, though I can now consume water, kool ade, and soda orally. I smash the Percocets and pump those in through the tube mixed in water. 7.5 mg at a time, about every six hours. It helps. My plan is now to just maintain the nutrition ( Boost and Ensure) intake and keep sampling soft foods that digest easily. Well, for anyone who reads this, hopefully there is some help. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Keep up the fight. Dan

yensid683

Sssssslllllloooooooowwwwwwlllllyyyyyy......

Healing takes time, more so than you'd think, radiation treatments do make permanent changes to the tissues and as has been noted in so many different posts on this forum, everyone is different.

I can relate, stage IV-a, base of tongue, 6 weeks of rads, chemo, two neck dissections.  I completed rads in early July of 2012 and, not to be discouraging, things healed very, very and I do mean VERY slowly.  It was 2 weeks after rads ended before I noticed any improvement and it was negligible at that.  It was two months+ before I could eat anything but small, soft and very wet foods.  It was more than a year before I could tolerate ice cream.  It was almost two years before I could eat normally, though I had to make changes.  Depending on the food I'm eating, I have to have water available to sip.  Rads impacted saliva for me (my medical oncologist said that the very dry mouth was likely permanent) but I do have about 75% which sounds poor but it's enough that I can eat any 'wet' food (fruit, veggies, pasta with sauce etc) without having to sip water, but toast, popcorn, chips, etc need to have that water bottle.

As Matt said, you will not - unfortunately - go back to where you were before treatment, though it does get better, you learn how to eat, what tastes you can tolerate, what things you have to avoid (for me it is sour tastes - no more Lemonheads)

Give yourself a chance to heal, it will happen, it just happens so very slowly

 

Mgbfoster

Almost 2 months post treatment

Congratulations on your success in making it through the radiation treatments. I too had 6 weeks of radiation treatments. I had a tumor at the BOT. I finished my radiation treatments on October 18th. The pain is almost gone. I do have some dificulties in swallowing but it doesn't stop me from eating. There are some things that I stay away from such as spicy dishes and crunchy foods. My taste buds seem to be returning however I still cannot taste sweets. I still don't have much of an appitite. Mucose is still somewhat of a problem as well. Take it one day at a time. Have patients!

Roar

My experience

Doug, I had about 40 radiation and 3 cisplatin- this week marks 4 years NED. I remember thinking " I would be able to finally eat a meal for Christmas. That didn't nearly happen. Next was my birthday in February and was barely able to swallow. I would say it was a good 6 weeks before I could eat and swallow very bland things like yogurt egg salad Pasta in butter sauce. You will hear people speak of the new normal. Everyone is differant . You will find your water bottle becomes something like your American Express card- you won't leave home without it. I still have issues with what I can and can't eat. I can't eat anything that is tough or dry. My taste is still a little off. Sweet does not taste sweet to me any longer. If I eat steak, it has to be rare and juicy. I eat a lot of soup. For breakfast I use a nutri bullet - a variety of berries, banana kale, spinach and flax seeds. I also put a scoop of whey isolate protein and 2000 mg of vitamin C and use almond milk as a mixing medium. This keeps me full until lunch time. I also take an anti oxidant and multi vitamin with my breakfast drink. If no one has mentioned this to you, make sure you take extreme care of your teeth. so to answer your question, your new normal will be a very slow process measured in months, not days or weeks. Improvements will be slow. Good luck and welcome to the most exclusive club in the word.the survivors club. Stay strong. It's all down hill now

Douglas11658

ned

well 30 day checkup all looks good   no sign of disease . going to be a great christmas.