Well I am just about to start my 3rd week of radiation. So far it has not been too bad I have been able to continue to put on weight (about 5 kilos now) and get around and do a few things.
Since about Wednesday last week I am starting to feel the radiation take hold a bit and every day am feeling a little more pain and more lethargic. At the moment it is not that bad so hopefully it won’t get much worse, but the doctors advise me otherwise.
I did feel extremely good between 2am and 4am on Sunday morning while my cousin Benson and I sat and watched a great All Blacks victory and felt pretty good later in the morning when the Knicks had a win which is also a great start to the season.
There is not much else to say, hopefully it stays that way and all stays good.
52 days to go…
Sorry for not doing an update over the last few days.The news since my last update has been good.
This of course is obvious after such a great game by the All Blacks against the French. After watching a game that Australia did not deserve to win I am feeling pretty good about a cup victory however previous world cup experience tells me that I should not be too confident!
On my front things continue to progress well and I am now eating a good 2000 – 3000 calories a day so am gaining weight and am in general feeling a lot better. The main issues at the moment is intermittent nerve pain and bouts of feeling very tired.
Today was the next stage in my treatment with the start of seven weeks of radiation. The nurses and doctors tell me that I won’t really feel the negative effects of it for a couple of weeks which is great.
The actual treatment for those that are interested is quick, efficient and painless. It works like this:
till the next time…
Things are on the improve over the past few days and feel like I am getting more food into me. I still having a few issues with the stomach but that is also starting to feel a lot better. The doctor is unsure of what is causing the stomach pains after the x-ray I had on Monday, so further blood tests have been taken.
Yesterday I went for orientation for my Radiation where they took a cast of my face, gave me a CT scan and took me through the process. The cast is to make sure I am in the same spot for each one of my treatments. The process of getting it is not painful but was awkward for me as when they lay me down I couldn’t help but fill up with phlegm that made it hard to breath.
The process from here as I understand it is they take the new CT scan, the previous PET scan overlay them and create my radiation treatment plan. The actual treatments will be every weekday for seven weeks starting on Tuesday next week. I will meet with the doctor every Thursday to review progress. I will also continue to meet occasionally with the throat surgeon.
It’s also been really good to have a few friends visiting over the past few days and lifts the spirits.
Not much to post today except that there has been a continued problem with the stomach which is stopping me from eating much, giving me a sore stomach and other things related to poo that I won’t go into. Anyway upshot is off to hospital tomorrow for some stomach x-rays. My surgeon is pretty confident as to what is causing it so hopefully that will be confirmed and a fix will be forthcoming.
To be honest the weight thing is really starting to get to me now, its hard to believe that it was only a few months ago when I was afraid I was going to hit the big 90 kilos and today I am hoping to get back to 75 kilos.
I am also a little worried after watching the All Blacks and Australia play this weekend. Australia look like they actually have a team that could win and the All Blacks need some serious improvement quickly!!
On a more positive note at least I am now in a position where I can eat more and my throat is feeling a lot better and the pain is much better. I even chewed some lamb yesterday!
And while on that positive note its been exciting to see how quickly Lexi Lambroni is already starting to have a personality all of her own and Zoe continues to amaze me with how she manages to be so smart and cute all at the same time.
Looking forward to a good week ahead.
Yesterday I was reminded that I still have some way to go as I prompted my first ever emergency call for an Ambulance.
I had had some stomach pains through the day and because of that had not eaten much. Determined to have a good dinner I worked through as much mashed potato, mashed Salmon soaked in butter and dill sauce as I could. When finished I started to get pain in my stomach and then neck. Although this was sore it did not initially concern me, I lay on the bed and waited for the pain to subside.
Much to my surprise the pain did not subside at all, the intensity grew, I started to sweet, the world around me started to get groggy. I quickly called for Kirsten to watch out for me but then all I could do was groan and quickly got to to the position where I did not think I could maintain consciousness.
Knowing that I had enough pain killers in me that this pain should not be so intense, not thinking that I was going to be able to stay lucid and not being able to effectively communicate with Kirsten I groaned Ambulance and Kirsten who was already thinking in that direction made the call.
As luck would have it about 10 minutes after the call was made the pain started to subside and by the time the ambulance arrived I was starting to come back to some sort of normality and felt stupid for involving them at all.
Needless to say I am a bit gun shy at the moment and am making some changes to my diary to include more water, less food more often and eating more Yogurt. If I am not feeling a lot better by the end of today will also seek more help in the way of medicines.
Anyway that was my Friday evening. Its been a restless night and although I did not get to see much of it the All Blacks them and I seem to be up for the same thing today which is resting and reflecting on how we can improve.
Better day today I am sure, the sun is out and the weekend is here.
Nothing much to report as pretty much all I did yesterday was two things; Sleep and visit the dentist. From the exhausting day before I seemed to just sleep all morning until about 2pm when Alan and Elisa came to visit which was great.
Had a visit to the hospital to see the dentist which is never fun and this was no exception but the good news was my teeth should be in pretty good condition for the upcoming radiation treatment. I am told though that during after the treatment I can expect my teeth health to deteriorate.
The only other thing on the health front is Thrush seems to have settled in which is annoying. What this means is I have a thin white coating on the tongue and at certain times when I do things like drink some water I get this sharp stinging pain on my tongue. I have some medication so hopefully this will help.
Today I hope to get a little more active today and learn a few techy things.
Goal Progress
Yesterday I probably pushed it a bit far and was really feeling sore last night and even more so this morning. What was I doing? Juliet made a visit in the morning which was great, Had breakfast, lunch and dinner, made very quick trip to Harvey Norman and Bunnings (Kirsten drove) to make a decision on my next mobile phone and much needed supplies. Even though the trip was less than an hour by the end of it I was exhausted.
So today it will be all about resting this morning before a trip to the dentist in the afternoon.
Progress on short-term goals:
So its time to make new goals till next Tuesday which is when I meet for the plan on the radiation treatment
Thanks every ones for continued support, hope to touch base with as many people as possible before I start Radiation in less than 2 weeks.
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