First Week of Radiation Treatments in the Books

Well the first week of radiotherapy went without incident and I am feeling little effects. I’m starting to get a little bit of dry mouth, so I’ve increased my water intake and the number of times I gargle with Caphasol. The Caphasol is supposed to reduce the affects of the radiation on my salivary glands. I also sat down with one of the radiation therapy nurses and she ran me through a check-list of things I need to be doing and not doing. We also went over the radiation effects. She gave me a tube of super moisturizer for my face and neck. I’m supposed to slather up a couple of times a day to keep my skin baby butt soft. They say I’m going to end up with what amounts to a serious sun burn on my neck and cheeks. The Erbitux has already resulted in a light skin rash on my forehead and across the bridge of my nose. It kind of feels like the 3rd day of a sunburn, a little bit itchy and it feels like it wants to peel, but it doesn’t.

I met with the doctors that put in my PEG and port on Wednesday morning and they took out a couple of stitches. We compared notes on just what a little pressure and a slight sting means. To them it doesn’t mean much, but they understand that patients have a little different understanding. I told them the joke about the guy that goes to the dentist for a toothache and when the dentist was numbing the patient up he told him he shouldn’t feel any pain. The patient grabbed the dentist by the balls and said, “you’ll feel what I feel.doc.” I told them we should apply the same principle when they take out my stitches. The doctor was very gentle. We also discussed my flushing of my feeding tube (PEG) and that I should be doing it daily. So now I have quite the ritual I go through every morning prior to going to work. Shower, change dressing, flush PEG, brush teeth, floss, gargle with caphasol, shave with my new electric razor, slather up with moisturizer and finally get dressed.

The electric razor was the radiation doctor/nurse’s idea. They don’t want me shaving with a regular razor because it results in tiny nicks that will have a hard time healing. Ok, I understand that. So I go to the store to buy an electric razor and do you know how much they want for electric razors? Holly molly, you can pay $250 bucks for the darn things. They’ve got options like automatic lather dispensers, and ones you can use in the shower. I have enough problems washing my back; I don’t need to add shaving in the shower. My luck I’d drop the darn thing on my foot, start hopping around, slip and bust my head open. I opted for a $50 version. I used an electric several years ago and was never much impressed so I went back to the regular old razors. I didn’t use a $250 one then either, maybe that was the problem.

I hope next week goes as well.