What a difference a week can make.

Three chemo and 9 radiation treatments down. I’m starting to feel the effects. My mouth and throat are getting dryer by the day and I’ve increased the amount of water I’m taking in and the number of times I gargle with Chaposol. I woke up Saturday morning with a very dry mouth and some of the dry spots are a bit sensitive. Also, my baby butt soft smooth skin on my face and neck has turned Gobie desert dry and I’ve started breaking out in acne. Nothing too serious yet, but I don’t remember by skin being this bad as a teenager. However, that was 40 years ago and I’ve probably put those divine memories in the bit bucket. I’ve also started to feel a bit nauseated early in the morning. A bit like a hangover; low grade headache, a bit dizzy and a little nauseated, not serious enough to toss my cookies, just a bit off. So far a Tylenal and something to eat and the feeling goes away fairly soon. Not so much today, the feeling has hung on through most of the day. Oh yea, and my sense of taste is getting a bit off as well. Things don’t taste bad, they just don’t taste right. I asked Terry if she wanted to go out for dinner tonight, it may be the last time in a while that I can enjoy a meal out.

Tuesday was a very busy day. I had my radiation and chemo treatments that day and I also met with a nutritionist and my radiation doctor. I arranged an early radiation treatment so I could have time to get blood drawn prior to the chemo treatment. Little did I know, they were going to run a set of x-rays to ensure proper aiming. Evidently, they are going to do that every Tuesday prior to the usual daily treatment. That added about ½ hour to the time I spent on the table. (with that damn tongue depressor thingy) Then it was off to get blood drawn and start my chemo. Luckily they don’t worry too much about schedules once you’re in the chair. I ended up waiting 2 hours for the lab results to come back before they started the chemo.

While I waited the nutritionist came by and we went over my diet and she recommended a few changes, mainly to double my calorie intake. So, essentially I can eat anything I want in as much quantity as I want and no one is going to complain. She said that sounds good now, but in a week or so it’s all going to change and my appetite is going to go south and my mouth and throat are going to be sore so I won’t want to eat. Then the challenge begins on how to get enough calories in me to sustain my weight and nutrition. I mentioned that Guinness was once thought to be very medicinal and that I had a feeding tube installed. She recommended some of the liquid meal replacement products instead. I don’t think we were on the same wave length.

I went back to work for a few hours, but the Benadryl was kicking my butt. When I got home a bit after 4 o’clock, I laid down on the couch and 2 hours later Terry woke me up. I’m thinking maybe I’ll just head home after chemo treatments from now on.

All of this doesn’t bode well for the coming weeks.

On the positive side I went to the gym twice this week. My port and PEG sights have healed well and I managed a light workout and some aerobics time. I felt re-invigorated and refreshed after the workouts. I’ll up the number of workouts next week if I can.