I had a visual and manual examination of my throat and neck today. There is no sign of any regrowth of the cancer. Tomorrow I see my oncologist and I suspect he will be scheduling a PET scan to look for stuff that doesn't show up with visual and manual exams.
The cancer part of this seems to be going great and that's the ultimate battle that's going on.
The recovery from treatment isn't going as well. I'm stuck with "nothing by mouth" ( that includes water and beer - damn!) for at least another month. I've got an appointment with my primary care doctor in a little over a week - maybe I can convince her to schedule a swallow test. My neck and throat doctor doesn't think I'd pass one for a while. There's no benefit in having the test unless I pass it. Maybe I should listen to the throat guy.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Greetings From Wesley Hospital
I finally got clearance to get to the one computer Wesley provides for patients and got the password to my blog worked out. Logging in to the blog is not automatic here like it is at home.
The Sunday of the Labor Day weekend I was feeling pretty bad and had a 102 degree fever. That was enough for a trip to the ER. The diagnosis was bronchitis and pneumonia.
Then there was the bad news. They ran some swallow tests and found that when I ate, some food didn't get swallowed and then trickled down my throat and into my lungs. I had pneumonia from stuff I was trying to swallow getting into my lungs.
That resulted in an immediate order that I take nothing by mouth. No food, no water, no medication, nothing. That would not have been a real big deal if I still had the feeding tube, but it's gone. Within a week of removing the feeding tube because I could eat without it, I needed it because of a swallowing problem.
That led to a nice little hospital stay. A week later, the pneumonia is gone. I'm not on any antibiotics, but I'm on an IV feeding method. I had to wait for the pneumonia to clear up and to get off of the pneumonia-related antibiotics before any doctors would put the feeding tube back in.
Now I'm the long-term patient on my floor, and I'm not sick. Replacing the feeding tube is scheduled for Wednesday (9-16) morning. If everything goes as expected, I should be home by mid-afternoon.
I'm anticipating it will be a long time until I eat anything resembling a meal. I need another surgery on my throat and then I'm going to have my swallowing checked pretty vigorously before the doctors let me put anything back in my mouth.
The Sunday of the Labor Day weekend I was feeling pretty bad and had a 102 degree fever. That was enough for a trip to the ER. The diagnosis was bronchitis and pneumonia.
Then there was the bad news. They ran some swallow tests and found that when I ate, some food didn't get swallowed and then trickled down my throat and into my lungs. I had pneumonia from stuff I was trying to swallow getting into my lungs.
That resulted in an immediate order that I take nothing by mouth. No food, no water, no medication, nothing. That would not have been a real big deal if I still had the feeding tube, but it's gone. Within a week of removing the feeding tube because I could eat without it, I needed it because of a swallowing problem.
That led to a nice little hospital stay. A week later, the pneumonia is gone. I'm not on any antibiotics, but I'm on an IV feeding method. I had to wait for the pneumonia to clear up and to get off of the pneumonia-related antibiotics before any doctors would put the feeding tube back in.
Now I'm the long-term patient on my floor, and I'm not sick. Replacing the feeding tube is scheduled for Wednesday (9-16) morning. If everything goes as expected, I should be home by mid-afternoon.
I'm anticipating it will be a long time until I eat anything resembling a meal. I need another surgery on my throat and then I'm going to have my swallowing checked pretty vigorously before the doctors let me put anything back in my mouth.
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