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Kathy,
I'm sorry to hear that the mouth sores hit Dennis so hard. They were awful for my wife too, perhaps the worst physical symptom during her transplant. Swallowing was an ordeal and she had to have regular pain meds for it, until it finally cleared up. Please know that his lips, cheeks, and throat will heal as his immune system builds up again.
I know that you and the nurses are doing whatever you can to lessen this discomfort. (For my wife, popsicles helped a little.) It's tough and you've just got to get through it. I know you will. It may be "normal" during a transplant, a result of transplant pre-conditioning, but that doesn't make it less upsetting to see.
Can Dennis control the dosage of the morphine drip? That can be very helpful both because it puts him in control (only he knows how it feels and his pain tolerance at any given time) and because the relief can be instant, rather than having to ring for a nurse if the pain gets worse.
Think of those future returns to the hospital as checkups. He won't necessarily be back because it's an emergency. And the mouth sores should be a thing of the past.
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