Questions for the veterans: 3 months post radiation: very hungry and "stinky" sorry for the TMI

Moki
Moki Member Posts: 53
edited March 2015 in Head and Neck Cancer #1

Hello all

I am now 3 months from my last radiation and my recover is going pretty well; my energy and stamina are improving every day, I can now exercise 60 min every day and feel great afterward. my taste buds are all back and I do not longer have dry throat, just minor dry mouth.

I will start my facial therapy to help with my facial paralysis at the end of the month....cannot wait. Movement are coming back, but my eye does not close yet and my mouth do not move much while I talk, but I can smile now, which is a great feeling 

Couple of strange things though:

1) lately I have been very hungry: if I do not munch every hour my stomach strart to growl loudly: it remind me when I was pregnant, which I am not Smile. BTW I did lose only 2 lbs during radiation, which I regained (5'3'' and 112 lbs)

2) TMI; my sweat stinks, a lot. I never had this problem before. I need to put deodorant several time/day. Nothing has changed in my diet or routine.

I did my research on line but could not find any insight. I made my theory that is maybe due to my body working in healing and regenerate so it needs more calories and maybe the stink is due to the toxins leaving the body. Could it make sense? Did it happen to you as well?

Have a great day everyone, spring is in the air....

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

  • wmc
    wmc Member Posts: 1,804
    #2
    Oh Moki that is so good to hear....

    You should be, and it seems you are, so proud. That is major accomplishments. To ones that never went through this it might seem small, but it is HUGE. Please celebrate all your mile-stones you have. It is good to write them down in a book for you or your children later in life. Or just when you have a bad day as well. When your children are older it will be good for them to remember what you went through yourself, and for them to survive. Be PROUD, we are.

    Bill

  • Moki
    Moki Member Posts: 53
    #3
    wmc said:

    Oh Moki that is so good to hear....

    You should be, and it seems you are, so proud. That is major accomplishments. To ones that never went through this it might seem small, but it is HUGE. Please celebrate all your mile-stones you have. It is good to write them down in a book for you or your children later in life. Or just when you have a bad day as well. When your children are older it will be good for them to remember what you went through yourself, and for them to survive. Be PROUD, we are.

    Bill

    THANK YOU FOR YOUR NICE WORDS

    Bill

    thank you for your nice words. I will write them downSmile

     It has been a very difficult period, with the cancer diagnose and 2 surgeries + radiation, all just after we moved to a new city, so no friends around. Thanks God for my family and some very good friends who supported me phisically and mentally. My recovery is giving me strenghts and positive vibes to keep moving forward. I sometimes fall in my "dark spot" and lose patience, but there is no time to commiserate or feel sorrow, I need to look ahead and enjoy my life. Even if I do not post much, I know this forum has a lot of people that felt like me during the process...we are not alone. Our future is brighter because we are learning how to appreciate every moment much better than before. This is a big gift!

    Happy day to everybody

  • MrsBD
    MrsBD Member Posts: 617 Member
    #4
    Questions

    You are doing really well for only three months. The combination of exercising and healing could be why you are so hungry. My problem is the opposite since I don't usually get hungry.  All the experts say treatment for H&N cancers is intense and it takes a while for our bodies to recover. I think your theory about toxins is reasonable. At 4 months, I developed an allergic reaction to make up I've used since high school, which was a long time ago. Perhaps our body chemistry has changed. You could try various deodorants to find one with different ingredients that work better. If that doesn't help, as you said, it's almost spring, so you can go outside where no one will notice you stink!

  • debbiejeanne
    debbiejeanne Member Posts: 3,102 Member
    #5
    moki, i'm glad you are doing

    moki, i'm glad you are doing so well.  for 3 months you are doing GREAT.  i hope you find the reason for the smell.  maybe like Mrs said, it is an allegic reaction to a product you are using.  try eliminating one at a time and she if it improves.  be sure to let us know if you figure it out.  that would be good info for newbies.  i am praying the facial therapy improves the movement of your eyes and mouth.  its wonderful that you can smile.  that is definitely something to celebrate.  i also have dark days but like you i dont' allow myself to be there too long.  i don't want to give cancer any more of my time, it robbed me of enough already.  it is now time for you to get back to enjoying being with your children  and life in general.  you've been to hell and returned better than you were, so celebrate that everyday and enjoy every minute of every day.  keep up the good work, you are an inspiriation for sure!

    God bless you and your family.

    dj

  • jackflash22
    jackflash22 Member Posts: 524 Member
    #6
    stinky

    your probably not as 'stinky" as you think. I think our bodies make more sweat with the treatments we have. I get night sweats and I spend all day indoors in a sun top because my partner gets cold and has the heating on all day (UK). I used to be the one who was always cold and he was always hot. We've swapped over. After I shower I put lots of nice body lotion all over me and that gives off a nice smell all day. 

  • Moki
    Moki Member Posts: 53
    #7
    jackflash22 said:

    stinky

    your probably not as 'stinky" as you think. I think our bodies make more sweat with the treatments we have. I get night sweats and I spend all day indoors in a sun top because my partner gets cold and has the heating on all day (UK). I used to be the one who was always cold and he was always hot. We've swapped over. After I shower I put lots of nice body lotion all over me and that gives off a nice smell all day. 

    THANK YOU

    Thank you all for your replies and suggestions.

    The strange thing is that during treatment I was always cold; I even stop using deodorant because it was not needed. Now that I am back to my normal temperature and myself, I need triple amount, LOL. I will ask my ENT next time I will visit with him, but I am pretty sure he will not have a clue and will give me a very generic answer.

    After 11 years living in US, I am still shock about the way the doctors do not connect with their patients. In Italy your doctor knows you very well, follow up with you to monitor your progress and stay close to you till you are cured. Here the doctors are like a well oiled machine, every 10/15 minutes they have another patient to visit, they never follow up with a phone call and when they see you next time they have to go through their notes to remember who you are and how you were feeling the prior time....of course when you ask questions they use the general answer, it depends, everybody is different, we will see with time, etc....the reality is they do not have a clue because they do not follow their patients closely so they do not learn from their experience. Maybe I have been unlucky, but this has been my own experience. 

    Taking about advancement in treatment, I read a recent article that said in France they found a way to detect cancer through a simple blood test, very similar to pap smear. It is revolutionary and in Italy they are waiting to become available to the general population to start using it.

    Strangely, here we have not heard anything about it. I am suspicious because it will replace PET scan and all other very expensive testing, a lot of interest involved.....would they ever replace them with a simple blood test?!

  • CivilMatt
    CivilMatt Member Posts: 4,724 Member
    #8
    I smell success

    Moki,

    Congratulations on your recovery, you have done well in 3 months.  Good luck on solving your mystery odor complex, if it continues then inform your doctor.  Also, do others smell you or just  you?  Many of us go through a bionic nose phase where we smell everything

    By the way, my rad onc called me yesterday to see how I was doing (3 years post).

    Also, it would be great if a simple blood test detected cancer, but it still might require a PET scan to reveal where the areas of interest are located.

    Best,

    Matt

  • debbiejeanne
    debbiejeanne Member Posts: 3,102 Member
    #9
    Moki said:

    THANK YOU

    Thank you all for your replies and suggestions.

    The strange thing is that during treatment I was always cold; I even stop using deodorant because it was not needed. Now that I am back to my normal temperature and myself, I need triple amount, LOL. I will ask my ENT next time I will visit with him, but I am pretty sure he will not have a clue and will give me a very generic answer.

    After 11 years living in US, I am still shock about the way the doctors do not connect with their patients. In Italy your doctor knows you very well, follow up with you to monitor your progress and stay close to you till you are cured. Here the doctors are like a well oiled machine, every 10/15 minutes they have another patient to visit, they never follow up with a phone call and when they see you next time they have to go through their notes to remember who you are and how you were feeling the prior time....of course when you ask questions they use the general answer, it depends, everybody is different, we will see with time, etc....the reality is they do not have a clue because they do not follow their patients closely so they do not learn from their experience. Maybe I have been unlucky, but this has been my own experience. 

    Taking about advancement in treatment, I read a recent article that said in France they found a way to detect cancer through a simple blood test, very similar to pap smear. It is revolutionary and in Italy they are waiting to become available to the general population to start using it.

    Strangely, here we have not heard anything about it. I am suspicious because it will replace PET scan and all other very expensive testing, a lot of interest involved.....would they ever replace them with a simple blood test?!

    moki, unfortunately, i think

    moki, unfortunately, i think in MOST cases you are correct, doctors do not follow up!  and when you are a new patient, they have you fill out a book and I have never figured out why, because they do NOT read it!!  they still ask you 50 thousand questions that you answered on the paper if they'd just read it.  I went to the dentist yesterday and had the questionnaire they had me fill out.  well, i know he didn't read it because when i asked him if he'd had other H&N cancer patients he asked me if I'd ever had radiation.  Well, I put on his questionnaire that I had 35 tx of rads.  I personally feel that doctors don't care any more.  It's like you said, they schedule patients every 15 minutes and they just want to move you out for the next one.  its sad but that's what it has come to.  i hate to be negative but i am being honest.

    God bless you,

    dj

  • phrannie51
    phrannie51 Member Posts: 4,716
    #10
    I was thinking the same thing as Matt....

    it may not be your sweat that has changed but your nose.....I could track better than my German Shepherd for a while there.  I've been using a salt crystal for years for deoderant....maybe fight natural chemical changes with a natural element....it might be worth a try.

    p

  • Moki
    Moki Member Posts: 53
    #11
    phrannie51 said:

    I was thinking the same thing as Matt....

    it may not be your sweat that has changed but your nose.....I could track better than my German Shepherd for a while there.  I've been using a salt crystal for years for deoderant....maybe fight natural chemical changes with a natural element....it might be worth a try.

    p

    Deo

    I use Liquid Rock natural deodorant, I will try different deo to see if they might works better. My husband and close friend say they do not smell anything, but I do. I thought they wanted to be nice, but maybe it is me that I became very sensitive to smell. I keep washing my fridge because it smells so bad and I go around the house sniffing strange smells trying to find the source, just like when my dog is walking at the park..I do not like to be a dog. Hopefully I will go back to be human soonUndecided

  • jackflash22
    jackflash22 Member Posts: 524 Member
    #12
    Moki said:

    Deo

    I use Liquid Rock natural deodorant, I will try different deo to see if they might works better. My husband and close friend say they do not smell anything, but I do. I thought they wanted to be nice, but maybe it is me that I became very sensitive to smell. I keep washing my fridge because it smells so bad and I go around the house sniffing strange smells trying to find the source, just like when my dog is walking at the park..I do not like to be a dog. Hopefully I will go back to be human soonUndecided

    Sniffer dog

    I think the nail has been hit on the head, you just reminded me my nose was sensitive to smells no one else could smell. I went around the house trying to track down smells I was sure was there. I was worried at one time the gas was leaking, it went on every morning as soon as I got up and walked into the kitchen. All these different smells went on for ages but I just realised I don't smell anything untoward  any more and hadn't even noticed. So I would think this is what your going through right now. There many of us that had tracker dog noses. 

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