Recovery Is Going Great

The tracheotomy tube is out. The feeding tube and IV tap (portacath) both go away next Tuesday (Sept. 1).

Food now includes: bacon, eggs, cantaloupe. burritos, pork chops, mashed potatoes, and more stuff.

I still need a lot of sleep and I'm not gaining weight. My metabolism is cranked. I'm getting an average of about 2,600 calories a day. I don't know what my body is doing with all the sleep and food. The only thing I can imagine is that my body has everything on overtime and double shifts fixing stuff that the chemo and radiation broke down.

My neck is not pretty or something anyone would want to see. The scar from the original surgery is big and ugly, but the sunburn effect from the radiation has my entire neck area rough, red, and obviously irritated. The scar reacted by turning pretty much dark and bright red.

I'm going to try for 6 hours a day at work for the next 2 weeks. The only problem I see is my sleep requirement, which is still in the 12-hour range.

I am thrilled with the progress I'm making. It seems I'm doing better than any of the doctors expected. My throat is still sore and swollen. Going into allergy season is a little tough. The combination of some allergy reactions with the condition of my throat causes some complications.

Real Food

I'm getting all my food by mouth and starting to eat real food. I can't put much variety into my diet yet, but...

Meat - Grilled fish. That's the only meat I can eat, but I like fish. The next attempt is looking like crock pot pork chops. They cook 4 hours and come out very tender and moist.

Vegetables - About anything in small servings.

Carbohydrate - Ramen noodles. That's about it from the carb group.

Breakfast - Fried eggs.

My next food target is a Chinese buffet in about 2 weeks.

Work is tougher than I thought. I still need about 12 hours of sleep a day. I was expecting the early phases of recovery to be mainly eat, sleep, and work. Right now it looks like an 8-hour day is going to require me to be in bed around 8:00 or 8:30. That's going to be quite a change for my body. Fortunately, my body clock is so messed up it has no clue what's going on.

Tracheotomy tube comes out Thursday. I should be scheduling the rest of the little patch-up stuff this week.

Hi Ho! Hi Ho!! It's Off To Work...

I've been cleared to work 4 to 6 hours a day. That's going to be reviewed around the end of August and I'm expecting to be at full 40-hour weeks by the middle of September. I'm glad I'm able to start off slow like this. So far, in the 2 days I've worked, I've been asleep within a half-hour of getting home.

I needed a chance to get back to work. It's one of the biggest signs that my life is beginning to return to normal. It's great to have something to do other than sit around the house.

The healing seems to be going faster lately. I'm within one small meal a day of getting off the feeding tube completely. My meals are all liquid or real soft stuff, but getting all my food by eating it is the next big step. I have to watch calories to make sure I get enough.

I have changed my standards, but I can honestly say, "I feel good".

Slow, But Steady, Healing

This healing process is going to be long. I can notice improvement day-to-day, but it's small improvements. Today's improvement was that eating a banana was easier today than it was yesterday.

My diet for the next few weeks isn't very appetizing, but I've found enough nourishment and calories in forms I can eat that I can start working on getting rid of the feeding tube. I've tried hamburger in a sauce and I've tried hot dogs. I guess I'll be a vegetarian for a few weeks, because that didn't work well.

I've got an appointment with the Doc who is responsible for my tracheotomy tomorrow (Monday, 8-17). We're going to have a discussion about this tracheotomy tube. I'm ready for them to pull it out and sew up the hole. Doc wants it in another couple of weeks. I think it's doing more harm than good.

I'm feeling good enough that I did a bunch of reasonably strenuous yard work this weekend. I got rid of all the volunteer trees that are in my back yard. Only a couple were over 10' tall, but that was still a lot of work for someone who's been inactive for a while. I also cleaned up all the spots that the mower can't reach. I enjoyed it and the yard looks lots better.

I hate even the hint of a thought of being a vegetarian, even for a single day. I'm a carnivore.

This "Recovery" Thing Could Take A While

I wasn't expecting much progress the first week, so I'm not disappointed. I am starting to burn out on being sick or whatever it is that I am. This is like cabin fever, except in the middle of summer.

I have gotten to where I can swallow water. I couldn't do that the last week of treatments or the first week after they were over.

I know body piercings are popular now, but I'm ready to get rid of some of mine. I'm starting to get an idea of when that's going to happen.

The feeding tube comes out 3 - 4 weeks after I'm eating comfortably. That could be a while. I don't like the removal method. It's basically grab the tube and pull. I was told to expect some pain. That thing is in there pretty good. I forgot I was hooked up once and went to answer the phone. The tube is implanted tight enough that I can pull over an IV stand (the thing they use for IV's in hospitals) without budging the tube. That's going to be one pretty hefty "pull".

The tracheotomy tube comes out after all the swelling in my throat is gone. I hope that means the swelling from the radiation and doesn't include the swelling from forcing a tube down my throat and doing the tracheotomy. Neither would be considered short-term, but the swelling in my neck from the surgery is going to be around for quite a while. What my body would normally use to get rid of that swelling isn't there any more. I know I'm going to have a tracheotomy tube long enough that I'm getting this one changed out for another one that's more comfortable. That happens Wednesday. This is really minor. Just pull the tube out (that's a daily routine any way) and then drop in a few stitches to close the hole.

Then there's the portacath - Per Wikipedia:

In medicine, a port (or portacath) is a small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin. A catheter connects the port to a vein. Under the skin, the port has a septum through which drugs can be injected and blood samples can be drawn many times, usually with less discomfort for the patient than a more typical "needle stick".

I imagine that can come out about any time. At least there's SOMETHING I can get rid of in the near future.

The portacath removal has been described as an office visit, a small incision (about 3/4") and then just pull it out. Since that thing is connected to my aorta I'm a bit concerned about, "just pull it out". I'll be glad when that one's out of the way.

Treatments Are Over!

I had my last radiation treatment today. Let the healing begin.

It's kind of strange to go 5 months with a series of doctors and you know that every one of them is going to cause pain. Sometimes more of an old pain. Sometimes a new pain. When that was finally over, it took a couple of hours to realize they're going to stop testing my pain threshold limits.

My experience is that discomfort from a radiation treatment increases for about 2 days after the treatment, so I've still got 2 days of things getting worse.

The predictions are either 3 to 4 weeks or 4 to 6 weeks until I'm interested in eating by swallowing food. That's an important step. I'm struggling to put on any weight on the all-liquid diet and I need 6 or 8 pounds. I can't have the stomach tube taken out until I'm eating 100% by mouth.

I probably shouldn't have the porta-cath (under the skin device that attaches to my aorta for IV treatments) out until I know there will be no complications from anything else. The tracheotomy tube will stay in until all the swelling is gone from my throat, which should be about the same time as when I start eating by mouth.

There are still 3 minor surgeries I need. I'm not forgetting that it was a very minor and routine surgery that flat-lined me. I've got a lot of healing to do.

There is good news. I do not have a trace of cancer, neither pre-existing, regrown, nor started in another location, not any kind or type. I'm currently in 100% remission. All cancers can recur, but the type I had (or have) isn't as aggressive as some at recurring.

My radiation oncologist was Dr. Cross at Wesley. He's the guy who decides how much treatment my body can tolerate and then seems to turn the treatments up a notch or two just to be on the safe side for a good kill of the cancer cells. I enjoyed being his patient even though he gave me the guided tour of what Hell can do to a mouth and throat. I better straighten this out again. I did not have cancer of the throat or the mouth, Mine was a neck cancer. Unfortunately, my throat and mouth seem to be in the exact places where the neck gets its treatments.

But I digress. Dr. Cross had another of his observational comments that say things better than any other way of saying it. This time it was, "In a year or two, you're not going to look back at this and laugh, but in a year or two, you are going to look back at this. That's really what we were trying to get out of all of this."