2 weeks remaining. So far, so good. Well, more good than not…

just4jme · February 19

First I want to thank everyone here for sharing their stories and experiences with treatment. It was extremely helpful helping me to prepare the best I could for my husbands newest adventure (Squamous Cell Carcinoma with lymph node involvement).

He has his final cisplatin chemotherapy treatment this next week and 10 days left of radiation. Here are a couple of things we discovered…

Right out of the gate, I had him drinking Enterade. It is a drink created by NASA for astronauts to help combat the effects of radiation exposure. It’s a bit pricy but I have every reason to believe it’s worth it. That combined with L-Glutamine powder (15g twice a day), seems to have helped quite a bit. He also has used a swishy called Prevention multiple times a day since the start.

Up until the past 3 days, he was eating regular foods, cheerios, English muffins, fish, eggs, oatmeal, the only thing he can’t eat is meat, he says it tastes horrible. In 6 weeks, he had only lost 7lbs.

He has had absolutely no mouth sores, no nausea to speak of, nothing really unbearable to contend with and went to work without to many issues (praying I’m not jinxing him by saying this).

Even his doctors and nurses are shocked at how well he had done thus far. We avoided a feeding tube which was something we both wanted to avoid. He’s a heavy equipment mechanic, so no extra holes. The last thing he would need is to get an infection.

However, admittedly the past few days, things are going in the wrong direction…

So, I went on a mission to find the highest calorie foods out there. Of course I got the usual tried and trues (Mac and cheese, etc). But his gag reflex is kicking in, so I’m not sure how long that will work. BUT, I think I found the ultimate solution!

Coffee Mate Vanilla coffee creamer (the Costco sizes) each tablespoon is something like 40 calories?! I combined that with ice cream and made a 1000 calorie milkshake for less than $1.00 per serving. Hopefully I can help him not lose too much this next few remaining weeks. I pray for that nightly.

I just wanted to share our experience thus far and maybe help others struggling with the side effects. The L-Glutamine has numerous case studies showing excellent results for head and neck cancers. I encourage everyone to look into it. I really think it has helped my husband tremendously. Enterade is fairly new so all you can read are the reviews, which out of 5 stars, is at 4.2.

Personally, we give it a 10.

scoleh · February 19

Interesting info regarding Enterade. I became aware of Enterade before my radiation treatments began and even mentioned it to the dietitian at my treatment center. I never got it, however, because I mistakenly thought it was intended to benefit chemotherapy patients alone. I see now that I was wrong about that. Had I known otherwise I would have certainly given it a try.

Best of luck to you and your husband going forward. As has your husband, I somehow tolerated radiation very well. Even so, the week after my last treatment was easily the toughest. But that week came and went, and each day now is a little better. You will get there too.

Peace!

Swoosh13 · February 19

Hi Just4jme,

Sounds like your husband is doing well and even better than expected so far. So happy for you. My husband liked root beer floats (vanilla ice cream) and said the bubbles from the soda felt good on his throat. He did get bad mouth sores (mucositis) early on so hopefully your husband will not if he hasn’t already. His pain tolerance was pretty high and he only took extra strength Tylenol for that. If you haven’t tried the Boost High Calorie and protein drinks yet I’ll post a pic (best mixed with ice or better with ice cream for a smoothie)

The only meat my husband tolerated during treatment was chicken. He even liked chicken Raamen noodle soup with 2 eggs cooked in for protein. The first 2 meats that he could not tolerate by weeks 3/4 were bacon and hamburger

Oddly the first 2 meats he regained taste on within the first month post treatment were bacon and ham.

Glad you posted about the Enterade, had never heard of that.

Blessings for continued success with your husband’s treatment, you’re nearly at the finish line.

Swoosh13/Gail

wbcgaruss · February 19

Thanks for bringing up the product Enterade in this posting I will thoroughly check it out.

Take Care, God Bless

Russ

just4jme · February 20

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1713416#Comment_1713416

We really believe it has made a huge difference. His Doctor and nurses had never heard of it and had doubts at its effectiveness ( but didn’t say we couldn’t try).

Now, given his lack of symptoms over an 5 week period, are a more pro Enterade. We hope they stay, I think this could help so many cancer patients regardless of which type they are fighting.

Maybe I should start just a Enterade post. So more people can see it?

just4jme · February 20

It seems he is heading that same direction. It’s amazing how quickly things change. It’s so hard to watch his skin look as though it’s melting away. He has 9 days left, I don’t see how he can get through this. At what point does the treatment become worse than disease?

He says he is okay and says this may be harder on me than it is for him.

I think he’s just trying to help me feel better. Bless his heart.

wbcgaruss · February 20

just4jme, he will get this done and get through this. It is extremely rough but he will just keep focused on the prize at the end. His care team worked up a treatment plan to eradicate the cancer so just be as supportive as possible and go one day at a time, one treatment at a time. The treatment is tough, even brutal but never as bad as the disease. The cancer untreated will not stop. I can imagine his skin looks bad as many of us can understand the red burnt skin like a severe sunburn or worse. I assume he is using something like Aquaphor to get relief and treat it each day, the center where you get treatment many times supplies all you need. There was a lady on here who said her secret to get through treatment was doing whatever she needed to do to get to the next minute, the next hour, the next week till it was done.

Wishing You The Best-Take Care, God Bless

Russ

2 weeks remaining. So far, so good. Well, more good than not…

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