Week Three is Done

And man is my ass dragging. My cheerful disposition is dragging, too. :)

15 days of radiation and I can tell you that sleeping around the clock has real serious appeal. Of all my current side effects, the tiredness is the one that gets me the most. I'm literally up for an hour and ready to go back to bed for two hours. Right now, I'm spending most of my afternoons/evenings in my nightshirt. I try to have normal clothes on from fairly soon after I wake up until we come back from the treatment. After that, though, it's nightshirt city.

Talked to Dr. Mundy yesterday and gave him an update on how I'm doing physically. Mouth sores - check. Very sore throat - check. Fatigue - check. Very red skin around jawline - check.

The mouth sores and sore throat are causing eating problems. Not unexpected, but if they keep me from eating, I'll end up with a feeding tube. There's really no other way. I'll see how things progress this weekend and early next week and let him know how it's going. I'm expecting to lose weight, but it won't be because I'm on a low cal/low fat diet plan.

Randall got a humidifier for my room yesterday and that seemed to help a bit. He's also wanting me to get down three fortified ice cream milkshakes a day. Fingers crossed there. It certainly won't be for lack of hunger.

The redness on my face is to be expected, too. However, it doesn't hurt, so I told the techs and the RN today that I'd keep an eye on it and if that changed, they'd be the first to know. I figure if it doesn't hurt, I'll just keeping putting creams on it three times a day. If it starts hurting, then we'll have to address that somehow.

Pain really isn't too bad yet except for my throat. And this would be good because Dr. Mundy doesn't prescribe Tramadol. Fortunately, I've got a whole lot here (enough to carry me through the radiation provided I don't have to take it by the handful), so that may not be an issue. I get the distinct impression that pain management isn't something he's particularly concerned about. Of course, I'm so weird with pain meds that I can sort of understand him not really believing me when I say nothing works unless it's in an IV. Sadly this is one of those things a doctor has to experience with me before he believes it. So for now, I'm going with 3 pain killers a day plus my regular dosage of ibuprofen that I take for other stuff. Right now, that works.

I did talk him into prescribing me some straight Lidocaine...something he hates to do, but I was just about insistent on it because the other stuff he's given me (a "magic mouthwash" concoction) doesn't really work well. I know Lidocaine has a whole bunch of nasty side effects dealing with the heart, but right now, the amount I need is fairly small (maybe 1 1/2 teaspoons a day). I told him I'd monitor my usage over the weekend and let the RN know how much I was taking. I also told him if the amount increased I'd tell him.

On the chemo front, we're where we were. Dr. Mundy talked to the clinic and they've thrown the ball back in our court. It all comes down to money, of course, but it may be possible we can work out something for an initial consult/blood work and see if chemo is even needed. To be honest, there is no way I could do both it and radiation at the same time. I'd be dead. So Randall will check in with the clinic in person after April 1 now that he knows who to talk to and we'll dance that dance then. Whatever gets done, though, will have to wait until my radiation is finished and that's not until April 18.

So that's my update for week three. I hit the halfway point of my treatment mid-week next week. I will be so glad when this is over.