sorry to hear that Laura and given he is now in a lot of pain am surpised he is not prescribed morphine.

Anno all different but ive have been on morphine since middle of week 3 and only now starting to reduce dosage but still on. At peak I was on 40mg MST tablets twice a day. They are meant to last 12 hours in system so rationale is that you would have morphine helping you 24 hrs a day. This can also be topped up by oral morphine. Only a suggestion but might be worth speaking to team re morphine. Painkillers there for a reason and no need to be in pain if morphine can help alleviate.
Im still on morphine end week 11 post treatment and on half dose now. Was also given soluable paracetamol in addtion.
Again only my experience but the Difflam in liquid mouthwash is nice and pleasant and might be worth a try. Does he have Caphasol tablets?..I was told better than difflam but I have been using both throughout treatment and has helped. Was told oral hygene really important and to keep using these.

Sorry dont mean to come across as know it all, just sharing my experience and doesnt sound like Mick is being prescribed very much when by the sounds of it, maybe he should as doubt paracetamol and codine gonna kick in much at this stage of his treatment.
I also feel for him re appetite as its really hard to eat when you dont feel able. How many supplement drinks is he taking a day. I was told at my peak to drink 6 a day but I struggled with that amount and most I can manage is 4 plus one small meal at dinner.

Hope Mick can find some respite with his pain and wish him well. Hope the next update has Mick in better place.

kind regards
ian
 

Hi Ian. I've just joined this forum, yet I have been following your story since December.... just a bit at a time.... eventually got to the end so it's time to say hello! My partner has just completed his 4th week of radio and chemo. Even though I've been reading about throat and neck cancer nothing prepared me for how difficult it is (and he didn't/doesn't want to read about it so I can only assume it's a shock to him too). My partner feels constantly ill from the chemo and the radio has affected his tastebuds. Everything tastes vile to him, even water (and I've bought bottled waters and various fruit squashes), he detests everything. I admire you being able to drink litres, when he's not even drinking a cup a day. It's so hard to get him to drink more and he's getting quite angry with me, he says I just don't understand. But I realise how important it is to remain hydrated and I'm sure he's probably feeling more poorly due to lack of food and drink!! He does actually have a PEG (since last week) but until yesterday he'd only had one Ensure through it at home. I can't attend the appointments but today I phoned the dietician and they're under the impression he's having 2-3 Ensure a day and more water. Apparently he had a lecture today to up the ensure as he's losing weight and dehydrated, and Monday the dietician will talk to him. This isn't easy. Fortunately he's not complaining about mouth pain, but he's really withdrawn into himself and probably not telling me everything (very down). Anyway, sorry to start on such a negative note, but that's how it is at this stage. I look forward to reading further posts and I hope that I have jollier things to report in time!  

Hi Louisabel this treatment isnt nice, I believe it’s one of the worst areas to treat with radiotherapy because theres so much going on in that area, but drinking water is a must to deal with it and eating.

I asked my doc why losing weight is such a problem, he said its because your body goes into starvation mode and it wont cope as well in that state, Iv lost a stone though..we all lose weight.

To get round strange and horrible tastes I got some swimmers nose clips so I couldnt taste anything to get food and drinks down and that really helped.

Dave

Hi Louisabel this treatment isnt nice, I believe it’s one of the worst areas to treat with radiotherapy because theres so much going on in that area, but drinking water is a must to deal with it and eating.

I asked my doc why losing weight is such a problem, he said its because your body goes into starvation mode and it wont cope as well in that state, Iv lost a stone though..we all lose weight.

To get round strange and horrible tastes I got some swimmers nose clips so I couldnt taste anything to get food and drinks down and that really helped.

Dave

Hi Dave!! Thanks for your reply!! That's interesting using the swimmers nose!! So if you hold your nose you can't taste something disgusting?.... interesting! I'll suggest that tomorrow.