Chemotherapy and Caring for Your Mouth

Teeth and mouth

Start taking care of your teeth early. When you know you are going to have to have chemotherapy, immediately contact your dentist. Have your teeth cleaned and checked, and fillings done if necessary.
Start brushing after every meal and before bed, if you do not already do so. Brush your tongue gently as well.
Also start rinsing with salted water or water with baking soda, one-half teaspoon to a cup of water. Start gargling with this same mixture after each brushing, and be religious about it. Do not eat or drink for one hour after rinsing, in order to give your body time to absorb the sodium, the element that helps your mouth stay safe.
Have the doctor prescribe the “magic mouthwash” early, before trouble starts. Have it on hand and start using it at the first signs of yeast (white patches) on your tongue or in your mouth. This is essential if you are to avoid serious trouble later on. The special mouthwash is concocted at your pharmacy out of several very helpful compounds to combat mouth infections.

Mouth Trouble

I have noticed that often we are not sufficiently informed about the potential side effects of chemo and how to deal with them. I surmise that the doctors are too busy, or even that they don’t want us to “get ideas” and panic. Personally, I prefer to have a game plan ready in advance. Here are some ways that I learned to deal with soft, painful gums and other mouth trouble.

Mouth sores are frequently caused by your white count moving to the basement, when your immune system starts to shut down. You may get things like cankers, and you may get white patches, which are an overgrowth of yeast. Both of these issues can be greatly helped by what the oncologists call "Magic Mouthwash." This product comes in several drug combinations, and generally includes an analgesic, an anti-fungal agent, and an anti-inflammatory dissolved in filtered water. It is not something you can pick up or make up yourself -- the pharmacist must make it up after your oncologist has specifically prescribed it. The Magic Mouthwash is something you swallow after rinsing with it, and that helps the bacterial imbalance in your tummy, too. Don't hesitate -- get the prescription and have it on hand. Do not ignore the white patches because they can be in your throat, too, causing a lot of misery. Don’t be stoic. Yeast, out of control, is very painful and can make it impossible to swallow. I can’t stress this enough.

Often, people are bothered by a dry mouth. Some suck ice chips or hard candies. To make eating easier, add gravies or sauces to your food. Forget any diet for now; the most important thing is to get nutrition and liquids (healthy things) into your body to help the healing process. So that means milk shakes, ice cream, yoghurt, applesauce, soups, bouillon, Jello – anything you can drink or that can slide down easily. Nutrition shakes are a good food source, too. Try not to be tempted by junk food, because you need to make every bite or gulp count toward recovery, and that means healthy food, especially protein. Most hospitals employ a nutritionist who will be able to give you a balanced food plan.

You may also get a horrid metallic taste in your mouth, or find that some foods taste funny. This I found hard to take, but you just have to live with it for the duration of chemo. I found adding lemon or limejuice to water helped quite a bit to conquer the taste. I could not bear to touch milk. Spicy foods tasted better, but then there was the heartburn factor to consider. Experiment with your menu, because some foods should taste fine. Again, what happens to you cannot be based on what happened to someone else.

There is one thing I would not recommend. One evening, desperate to eat something because I was having awfully sore gums, I put my chop suey in the blender. Oh, bad idea! Very bad! I don’t know if I will ever be able to eat chop suey again!

Legal Stuff

Resources

I have been so grateful to have had access to web-based support groups and to breast cancer information. Here's a list of Web Resources that helped me. If you know of other good ones, please e-mail me and I will add them to the list.

Wonderful Books

Here's a short list of books that I found helpful after I was diagnosed with breast cancer. As soon as I can I'll add to the list and I'll post some reviews, as well.

Walk-a-thon 2007

Every year, the Weekend to End Breast Cancer http://www.endcancer.ca raises tens of millions of dollars for breast cancer research, in several major cities across the country. Within each participating city, a carefully selected hospital receives valuable funding for research and facilities. Each Walker raises a minimum of $2000 for the privilege of walking 60 kilometres over a two-day weekend. Thousands of volunteers across the country donate their time, not only on the days of the event, but also on days training for their part in it. I made this Walk in 2005, not even a year after my treatment, volunteered in 2006 and have done so again for 2007.

I strongly urge you to become involved with this event or others like it. They are enormously uplifting, and you will come away with great memories etched into your heart. With each donation from my sponsors, I wondered if this could be the money that would fund a cure, because I do believe that we will find a cure.