Drinking alcohol during early stages of treatment

NJMOM
NJMOM Member Posts: 64
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

My husband has recenthe begun chemo and radiation for his stage 4 base of tongue cancer. To date, he has received two days of cisplatin chemo and just finished his 7th of 35 radiation treatments. He wishes to have a few beers with dinner and all the data given to us by the doctors advise against alcohol while you are in treatment. Does anyone know if there is a medical reason behind this? Can it affect your treatment adversely? I don't want him to undo whatever good they may already be doing with the treatments. 

Comments

  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #2
    Alcohol

    Hi and welcome to CSN H&N, This is just my take on alcohol, I know some people who did drink while in treatment but only small amounts, how it effected there treatment know one will ever know. I advise against using alcohol during treatment becuase soon his mouth will become very sore and drinking alcohol will make thing worse for him and give him a lot more pain. Myself I don’t use it at all but that is just me, if he can wait treatment is only 6 weeks or so.

     

     

     

    Tim

     

  • NJMOM
    NJMOM Member Posts: 64
    #3
    Hondo said:

    Alcohol

    Hi and welcome to CSN H&N, This is just my take on alcohol, I know some people who did drink while in treatment but only small amounts, how it effected there treatment know one will ever know. I advise against using alcohol during treatment becuase soon his mouth will become very sore and drinking alcohol will make thing worse for him and give him a lot more pain. Myself I don’t use it at all but that is just me, if he can wait treatment is only 6 weeks or so.

     

     

     

    Tim

     

    Tim, I completely agree.

    Tim, I completely agree. There will be plenty of time when this is all over! But then again, I'm not the one dealing with this life threatening illness!

  • CivilMatt
    CivilMatt Member Posts: 4,722 Member
    #4
    welcome

    NJMOM,

    Welcome to the H&N forum, where drinking (and swallowing) in general is highly important.

    If he follows the path most of us take, in 2 more weeks he will not want to drink anything let alone alcohol or beer.

    Drinking beer is probably not detrimental to treatment at some level, but I don’t know how much that is.

    It is important to keep drinking and swallowing drinking and swallowing but mostly we recommend water, protein drinks, healthy smoothies, etc..

    Cheers,

    Matt

  • wmc
    wmc Member Posts: 1,804
    #5
    Welcome to the H&N Group

    Welcome to the group, and also sorry you need to be here. I would say stay clear of alcohal. Next to tabocco it is the second leadind cause for head and neck cancers, third is GURD acid reflex. I would recomend not during treatment as it "might" alter the meds.  Now after treatment it should be fine in small qtys. He is going to go down a very rough and bumppy road so he now needs lots of water, keep swallowing,[ you can forget how to] and might want to put on a few extra pounds. Best to you both and we will keep you in our prayers.

    Bill   10/2013

  • donfoo
    donfoo Member Posts: 1,771 Member
    #6
    should be pretty clear...

     the doctors advise against alcohol while you are in treatment.


    I'm certainly putting down a few these days but if you trust your doctors, then it's probably wise to listen to their advice; they're the experts, none of us are qualified to offer anything more than our personal opinion. Practically, as been mentioned, it's moot issue as nearly all find it very difficult to drink any fluids; at that point, it'll be a battle to just get water down.  Hang in here and good luck.

  • phrannie51
    phrannie51 Member Posts: 4,716
    #7
    How many is a "few"?

    One probably doesn't affect anything....a 6 pack would be a different story.  If he's had 7 rad treatments, then in another week, beer isn't going to taste very good...and the week after that, will sting and hurt like crazy to swallow. 

    Somebody mentioned treatment is only 6 weeks, hopefully he can hold off that long.

    p 

     

     

  • NJMOM
    NJMOM Member Posts: 64
    #8
    CivilMatt said:

    welcome

    NJMOM,

    Welcome to the H&N forum, where drinking (and swallowing) in general is highly important.

    If he follows the path most of us take, in 2 more weeks he will not want to drink anything let alone alcohol or beer.

    Drinking beer is probably not detrimental to treatment at some level, but I don’t know how much that is.

    It is important to keep drinking and swallowing drinking and swallowing but mostly we recommend water, protein drinks, healthy smoothies, etc..

    Cheers,

    Matt

    Thanks

    i have read many posts on here and I see that we are about to embark on a very different journey than we ever thought we'd be on at this point in our lives. I have absorbed a ton of info from posts of people who have gone down this road and I pass along what I read to him to help make this as easy on him as I can. Thanks for your support!

  • NJMOM
    NJMOM Member Posts: 64
    #9
    wmc said:

    Welcome to the H&N Group

    Welcome to the group, and also sorry you need to be here. I would say stay clear of alcohal. Next to tabocco it is the second leadind cause for head and neck cancers, third is GURD acid reflex. I would recomend not during treatment as it "might" alter the meds.  Now after treatment it should be fine in small qtys. He is going to go down a very rough and bumppy road so he now needs lots of water, keep swallowing,[ you can forget how to] and might want to put on a few extra pounds. Best to you both and we will keep you in our prayers.

    Bill   10/2013

    Thanks

    it's a group I wish I wasn't a part of....no offense!! I take what I read on here and pass it on to help him. I've been making him drink Ensure and Boost for3 weeks now to bulk up before it beigins to go south and I push him to drink as much fluid as humanly possible because of the cisplatin. Your support is wonderful!

  • NJMOM
    NJMOM Member Posts: 64
    #10
    phrannie51 said:

    How many is a "few"?

    One probably doesn't affect anything....a 6 pack would be a different story.  If he's had 7 rad treatments, then in another week, beer isn't going to taste very good...and the week after that, will sting and hurt like crazy to swallow. 

    Somebody mentioned treatment is only 6 weeks, hopefully he can hold off that long.

    p 

     

     

    One is too many

    My feeling is one is too many right now! There will be plenty of time when he's healed. He's already experiencing a dry throat and I'm sure all the "good" stuff is about to happen to him. He says the occasional diet soda is already starting to lose it's appeal so maybe he's changed his mind about the beer. I feel it's so unfair of me to tell him he can't do something because I'm not the one with the disease coursing through my body. I just want him cured...yesterday!! Thanks for your support, it means a lot!

  • wmc
    wmc Member Posts: 1,804
    #11
    NJMOM said:

    One is too many

    My feeling is one is too many right now! There will be plenty of time when he's healed. He's already experiencing a dry throat and I'm sure all the "good" stuff is about to happen to him. He says the occasional diet soda is already starting to lose it's appeal so maybe he's changed his mind about the beer. I feel it's so unfair of me to tell him he can't do something because I'm not the one with the disease coursing through my body. I just want him cured...yesterday!! Thanks for your support, it means a lot!

    This is why we say........

    This is why I always say it can be harder on the caregiver/lover one. You already feel it is unfair to tell min no. That is the job of a caregiver. You see he might be in pain, but you can only confort him, not take it away. The hardest job for the caregiver is remembering to take care of YOU. As the patient, we do know all you are doing for us, we just don't say it all the time. None of us could fight this beast without the loving caregiver who only thinks of us. You need rest and a small time in the day that is for you. We need your best game and to do that you have to remember, you have to take care of you as well. He is not alone in this fight and neither are you. We support all caregivers as well and open 24/7 for the bad days and you just need to vent. We all understand venting and it has proven to help a lot just getting ot out to people who understand and have been there.

    Three things to remember:

    1 Never give up;

    2 Keep hydrated;

    3 You are never alone.

    Bill

  • NJMOM
    NJMOM Member Posts: 64
    #12
    wmc said:

    This is why we say........

    This is why I always say it can be harder on the caregiver/lover one. You already feel it is unfair to tell min no. That is the job of a caregiver. You see he might be in pain, but you can only confort him, not take it away. The hardest job for the caregiver is remembering to take care of YOU. As the patient, we do know all you are doing for us, we just don't say it all the time. None of us could fight this beast without the loving caregiver who only thinks of us. You need rest and a small time in the day that is for you. We need your best game and to do that you have to remember, you have to take care of you as well. He is not alone in this fight and neither are you. We support all caregivers as well and open 24/7 for the bad days and you just need to vent. We all understand venting and it has proven to help a lot just getting ot out to people who understand and have been there.

    Three things to remember:

    1 Never give up;

    2 Keep hydrated;

    3 You are never alone.

    Bill

    Funny you say that...

    It's funny you say that because for the first two weeks after we found out, all I did was cry whenever we went to a doctor or someone brought it up. My husband has actually said he thinks it's harder on me than it is on him. Since his diagnosis I find it much harder to sleep at night and I try and spend as much time with him as I can while we're still able to have "good" time together. While we've known each other for 9 yrs, we just got married in September 2014, so this is definitely a test of what we're really made of. I am glad there are sites and groups like these because you certainly don't want to burden the one who's already suffering with your suffering as well.

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