Week 5

I don't know what happened, but suddenly, after my Monday morning radiation session, I crossed that boundary between discomfort and pain. My left tonsil really flared up and HURT! Fortunately, it settled down a bit by Wednesday evening and became much more tolerable. By week's end it was just more of the usual background pain. Nothing that ibuprofen can't control.

Good news on the dietitian front. I maintained my weight throughout the week. Finally discovered a few calorie dense foods that I can eat without much disgust. Can't say I enjoy them, but I can force them down. Barbara cooked a giant flan yesterday and I dug in. It looked and smelled great, and tasted slightly of eggs and caramelized sugar, but was otherwise tasteless for me. I could imagine how good this would have tasted just a few weeks ago and proceeded to shovel down a good sized bowl full. Grateful for the calories. I started making a mental list of all of the foods I'm going to eat first when I can taste again. After watching food shows on PBS and reading cooking magazines I'm afraid the list of "first" foods is too much to realize. I have at least a month's worth of dinners mapped out in my hungry head.

More good news. Talked with the chemo PA on Tuesday. She says that after weighing the pros and cons of a 7th dose of chemo toxins they are unlikely to give me the extra dose. I'm only one round away from being done with cisplatin and a week closer to getting my taste buds back!

Thursday meeting with the radiologist. My time to complain about the constant ringing in my left ear and the fact that my neck skin is beginning to feel like freshly tanned leather.

She assured me that the ear ringing was mainly a chemo induced change and is only temporary. As for the skin texture - it will improve, but will always be slightly scarred and tougher thanks to radiation. So, one side of my neck will have a 4 season tan forever.

Apparently, Monticelli (chemo) knows of what he speaks. He said week 4 or 5 would be when I finally really felt the full impact of the chemo. Friday was a slow day - low energy and lots of naps. Then came Saturday and Sunday. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that I finally got a glimpse of the side effects of chemo. Low, low energy level, nausea (no puking, fortunately) and a smattering of other symptoms. Still got out with the neighbors and dogs but really wish they would put benches on the trail about every 1/4 mile. Had a big case of the don't-give-a-#*%!s especially about food. Will be interesting to see on Monday how much weigh I lost this week

How about a few more photos to end this post?

First - hair loss. Chemo didn't kill my hair; it just "thinned" it. Here's what comes out every time I comb my hair.

Actually, this is down considerably from about 2 weeks ago. And most of this is not chemo loss as much as it is radiation burning hair off the back of my neck.

And finally, want to see why I don't eat much food?

Notice the lesion on the left tonsil where most of the radiation is focused. It looks a lot like that further down my throat. Now, if you haven't lost your appetite, go eat some food for me. And don't forget to use plenty of sriracha sauce, too.