22 March 2019.
Eating shouldn't be this hard.
OK kids, I've been diagnosed with cancer at the base of the tongue in my throat. Not a good thing, but every medico I've spoken to has been extremely positive and told me it is totally curable with treatment.
I'm not shopping for sympathy, but I'm not much of a talker about private stuff (much to Suzanne's dismay) so I'm writing this the keep family and friends up to date, and save you all a bunch of phone calls and emails. Maybe this will also help out someone who might go through the same thing somewhere down the track. It's always good to get the story from the horse's mouth, even if his tongue is a bit munted. 😃
We're into week three now, and it's starting to bite.
The whole focus on not losing weight is because after Chemo and Radiation the body has a really hard time recovering and unfortunately the first thing to go is muscle mass. If I lose to much I won't be able to ride my bikes, so that CAN NOT happen.
Unfortunately it's bloody hard to eat. Anything.
Here's the process:
Cop the Chemotherapy, which causes the loss of the sense of taste, nausea, and loss of appetite.
Cop the Radiotherapy, which basically burns my throat (I've been told my mouth and throat will blister, and my saliva glands will drop off production), so it's very hard to swallow anything.
Take the medication, which cause nausea and loss of appetite.
Take anti nausea medication.
Try and eat food.
Take more medication to blah, blah, blah...
The bottom line is that I can taste very little, I have a very slimy mouth (yes, I know, a few girls have already told you that) so everything I try to eat is basically tasting disgusting. Then it's painful to swallow. I've been getting by with Panadol, but more often every day. The next step is a numbing gel (sounds wonderful), then a Morphine solution, at $79 a bottle. I'm not a big fan of taking medication, but I have to for this. I'm holding off on each stage as long as I can so hopefully it will have more effect when I need it.
Nurse Suzanne (Hmm, might have to get her a little uniform) has been making me smoothies left right and centre, and they are awesome. We'e experimenting with the contents because some just don't work, I bought a mango smoothie at the hospital yesterday. On sip and it nearly tore my throat out. Anything acidic is off the list, so I don't know if it was the mango or something else in there that did it. Another experiment coming up.
Once again Suzanne is coping the the worst of this. I'm doing the same things her dad just a few short months ago, so I can only imagine what she's going through her mind behind her mostly brave face. Just remember Suzanne, every person we have spoke to has said they can "cure" this, you're not getting off that easy.
Eating shouldn't be this hard.
OK kids, I've been diagnosed with cancer at the base of the tongue in my throat. Not a good thing, but every medico I've spoken to has been extremely positive and told me it is totally curable with treatment.
I'm not shopping for sympathy, but I'm not much of a talker about private stuff (much to Suzanne's dismay) so I'm writing this the keep family and friends up to date, and save you all a bunch of phone calls and emails. Maybe this will also help out someone who might go through the same thing somewhere down the track. It's always good to get the story from the horse's mouth, even if his tongue is a bit munted. 😃
We're into week three now, and it's starting to bite.
The whole focus on not losing weight is because after Chemo and Radiation the body has a really hard time recovering and unfortunately the first thing to go is muscle mass. If I lose to much I won't be able to ride my bikes, so that CAN NOT happen.
Unfortunately it's bloody hard to eat. Anything.
Here's the process:
Cop the Chemotherapy, which causes the loss of the sense of taste, nausea, and loss of appetite.
Cop the Radiotherapy, which basically burns my throat (I've been told my mouth and throat will blister, and my saliva glands will drop off production), so it's very hard to swallow anything.
Take the medication, which cause nausea and loss of appetite.
Take anti nausea medication.
Try and eat food.
Take more medication to blah, blah, blah...
The bottom line is that I can taste very little, I have a very slimy mouth (yes, I know, a few girls have already told you that) so everything I try to eat is basically tasting disgusting. Then it's painful to swallow. I've been getting by with Panadol, but more often every day. The next step is a numbing gel (sounds wonderful), then a Morphine solution, at $79 a bottle. I'm not a big fan of taking medication, but I have to for this. I'm holding off on each stage as long as I can so hopefully it will have more effect when I need it.
Nurse Suzanne (Hmm, might have to get her a little uniform) has been making me smoothies left right and centre, and they are awesome. We'e experimenting with the contents because some just don't work, I bought a mango smoothie at the hospital yesterday. On sip and it nearly tore my throat out. Anything acidic is off the list, so I don't know if it was the mango or something else in there that did it. Another experiment coming up.
Once again Suzanne is coping the the worst of this. I'm doing the same things her dad just a few short months ago, so I can only imagine what she's going through her mind behind her mostly brave face. Just remember Suzanne, every person we have spoke to has said they can "cure" this, you're not getting off that easy.
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