Questions regarding chemo/radiation therapy

[klfrech]

My father has early stage lung cancer, contained in one lobe with no spread to any other areas of his body. He is 77 years old.

He has done chemotherapy with up and down success, and now has just finished radiation, with the hopes of just shrinking the tumor. I just saw him over the holidays, and he has aged 20 years in the last 4 months since radiation.

Right now he has two major problems: a burnt esophagus which makes eating almost impossible and a severe, never-ending itch to his skin (all over his body). He has unable to get any relief from either of these conditions. He's also the type of person (he and my mother) who don't want to bother the doctors, so he's not telling them how he really feels.

Anyone have any suggestions/tips, experiences with either of these conditions? How long will it be before he recovers from the radiation treatments?

 

[clovergirl5]

Im sorry, I don't have any answers for you, I just wanted to give you a and well wishes for your dad. You and him, stay positive.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

The effects of these treatments together can be cumulative. So after receiving both, I'm sure he feels like he's been through the ringer. He should begin to feel better overall, but it may take weeks to months (as it did for me), all else being well. Pay particular attention to his emotional status, too - it's not uncommon to go through a down period after cancer treatment, especially when you're feeling and looking like you just got run over by a bus not to mention now you can't eat right, etc.

The esophagus question is one for his radiation oncologist. Maybe you can go to his next appt with him? (He'll have close follow up for a while.)

The itchy skin is a little trickier as you'd need to know what's causing it, and that could be any number of things, some possibly unrelated to his cancer treatment. I'd suggest speaking with both his oncologists (medical and radiation), for their opionions about it, and possibly his internist, too, if it's out of the ordinary with his particular cancer treatment. There are some lotions that are generally pretty effective for itchy skin so it may be a relatively easy fix, but he has to let them know what's going on to start.

Good luck.

 

[Pigeon]

I would do what I could to talk him or your mother into "bothering" the doctors.

I'm a cancer survivor. If your dad's oncologist or radiation oncologist are worth a dime, they WANT to know every detail about every side effect he is having. I used to joke with my incredibly wonderful oncologist that all I ever did was complain when he would ask me endlessly about all possible side effects. He explained that a huge and important part of his job is to make treatment as doable as possible and minimize the unpleasantness.

Your dad's docs probably have a host of things that they can offer for the side effects. Since everyone reacts differently, what works for one person won't necessarily work for another, but your dad should speak up and give the docs the information they need to do their job.

I hope he feels better soon.

 

[Pakey]

I'm so sorry you are having to go through this. Everyone is different but I had skin problems when going through radiation that only got worse as the treatments went on. Both my oncologist and my radiation oncologist presribed many different lotions/ointments to help with the problem.

For me, I did daily radiation for 8 weeks and my symptoms got worse as it went on but it was only a few weeks after I completed the treatments that my skin was back to normal.