I Hate Vitamins

I’m halfway through radiation treatment. My mouth continues to be dry, but that isn’t too bad. I am trying to diligently drink fluids to keep my mouth moist. My taste buds are also out of whack, but I went through a lot of that while on chemotherapy so I’ve adjusted to that feeling.

Late last week I started to develop soreness when I swallow. This morning, my radiation oncologist prescribed “Magic Mouthwash”. This is actually a sucralfate compound mouthwash that has to be prepared by a compound pharmacy. Apparently it’s mixed to order. It can be swallowed and is supposed to help with the soreness. I just took the first dose, but I think I used it wrong. It says to swish in my mouth. So I swished. But it’s my throat that is sore, so I probably should have gargled. Next time I’ll gargle.

The oncologist said that I should expect continued discomfort. He said I may also have some hoarseness. The nurse said to try to eat softer, blander foods. They also said I may have problems with acidic foods like tomatoes and citrus and dense foods like steak. For now, I'm still eating normally while I can. Because eating soft bland foods will get old really quickly.

Apparently this whole throat thing caused me a bit of havoc this morning when trying to take my vitamin. I have been trying to be diligent about my vitamins because it’s supposed to help hair growth. Once in a while, when I take a multi-vitamin it makes me a little quesy if I take it on an empty stomach. I had eaten breakfast and had a dried fruit snack a few minutes before taking it so I didn’t think taking the vitamin would be an issue.

I took the vitamin, and it did feel a little funky going down my throat, but I thought I was fine. A few minutes later, I could still sort of taste the vitamin in the back of my mouth/throat. And then I had a passing thought that maybe it was a little nauseating, and it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. I had to immediately try not to think about it, because the second I would think about it I would gag and nearly heave. And unfortunately, I had just walked out to my car and didn’t have anything to drink to try to get rid of the taste. I cranked the cool air up to full blast and took deep breaths for about two or three minutes. The feeling finally subsided.

I ate lunch a few minutes later and managed to get rid of the taste and settle the nauseous feeling. I did find that my throat is a little worse today than over the weekend, and that I have to really chew into small easy-to-swallow bites.

In other news, my skin is also starting to get a little red. Radiation is starting to be a little annoying. Even if it is near the Starbucks.