Before starting the Mekinist, Yale Pharmacy gave me a list of side effects. They were grouped into "guaranteed to happen," "likely to happen," and "unlikely to happen. You can mitigate some, such as the skin rash, with prophylaxis treatment for dermatologic toxicity. Falling into the "unlikely to happen" was mouth sores; this is one of two items where I was told I must call Yale. I've been so stressed, when the baby canker sore appeared, I thought it must be stress-related, but when it wouldn't go away with your standard baking soda rinse, I called Yale. Yale prescribed "magic mouthwash." Abbey jokingly told me, "it's something else," and when I pressed the pharmacist to see what that meant, she expertly sidestepped the question.

Dear God! This stuff is the consistency of runny yogurt and has medicine and lidocaine, so it tastes awful and numbs your mouth! Partway through the two minutes of swishing, I'm drooling the pink liquid and trying not to swallow. (I'm told the lidocaine can potentially numb me stop my breathing.) When I picked it up last week, I thought the 480 ML (little over 2 cups - pictured) would be ample, but 10 days in and I still have the canker sores. We're adding a steroid swish and spit to use before the mouthwash. Fingers crossed it works because I'm really tired of salt being too much spice for my food!