Throat pain, choking, thrush

melmcbee

Hello, I did 5 days of radiation to certain levels of my cervical and thoracic spine. My throat started to hurt and I continued having difficulty swallowing. It is killing me a week after. Choking. Cant even swallow water. Noticed my tongue was white. Showed my oncologist who just started me on a new chemo. She prescribed nystatin and also magic Mouthwash. Has anybody here had issues with post radiation esophagitis or thrush and do you have any suggestions on how to stop the terrible pain? Oh and for the record I will never do rads to neck and chest area again. However my spine pain is gone. Thank you for any tips.

toria1212

I'm so sorry that you are suffering. I had gerd symptoms during my radiation. I was prescribed hot lemon water with manuka raw honey pre and post treatment(each day) to coat my esophagus(prescribed by my integrative oncologist) Perhaps look online for homeopathic things like that, or teas, or concoctions that may ease the pain. I would also sleep elevated(or sitting up) as that seemed to help a little. I hope you are feeling well soon. (((hugs)))

Moderators

melmcbee,

We're so very sorry to hear you're having this terrible side effect! Toria offers some great tips above -- and we'd like to point you to the main Breastcancer.org site's side effect page on Swallowing Problems for some more practical tips to manage this effect.

We hope this helps and that you find relief soon!

--The Mods