Day 10 - Good news!

I try to find good news as frequently as I can. It just helps to give you a lift.

I received good news yesterday that my program had been reduced and would now finish on February 24th instead of March 1st. This gave me something to smile about and I messaged Vicki with the good news. Of course, she was happy for me too.

I must have been more tired than usual due to my ride yesterday because I slept very well. I went to bed at 11pm and woke at 6.30am. At least an extra hour's sleep compared to my normal, and that is always a good thing.

My mouth was a little dry when I woke up, but the feeling of being sunburnt had subsided. I checked the mirror and sure enough, the rash and redness had reduced noticeably. The antibiotic medicine prescribed by my Medical Oncologist was clearly doing its job. I was very pleased. More good news.

I worked from home for most of the morning, before getting out of the house and driving my son to see some of his friends. He's a resourceful lad and had worked out the bus routes, but I needed to get out of the house for some reason other than going to the hospital. Vicki is working and I'll be at the hospital this afternoon, so he'll have to catch the bus home.

On my return I made lunch, which consisted of a ham and salad sandwich, vegemite sandwich, grapes and a plum, a favourites chocolate and a cup of tea. As usual, I followed this up with my M&T Routine.

More good news, I can still taste everything although the grapes did sting my throat a little. I am deliberately overeating and trying various foods to monitor my taste and eating ability. One of the things that can go wrong is your standard eating and swallowing function gets difficult when not used, or you experience pain while swallowing. This is in addition to having everything you eat taste like cardboard or metal. Reducing the amount you eat, and what you eat, can have a detrimental effect on your weight, and thus how your eating and swallowing function continues to operate. From reading the literature it is not unusual to start out eating ok, then gradually changing the type and style of food to smaller and smaller bite size pieces including sauces to aid in swallowing, that then leads to chopped, finely chopped, minced and finally blended and smoothied. Compared to some, my treatment program is short, so I'm hoping that if it comes to it, having meal-time smoothies will only be for a very short period of time.

My radiotherapy session was at 3.20 again this afternoon. Today I was driving, so I left home around 2.15. In practice, the time of your appointment is somewhat irrelevant. They basically call you into the room in order. So far, I've found they are pretty punctual.

I had my first follow up meeting with my Radio Oncologist's Registrar after my treatment today. She went through a short questionnaire about my health and asked how things were going. I explained how well I was feeling and some of the side effects, like my dry mouth, sore throat, rash. No nausea, no changed toilet habits, no vomiting, no headaches, no lethargy or tiredness - yet. It is expected to come.

As a mouth breather, I have suffered with dry lips for as long as I can remember. I have applied Vaseline Petroleum Jelly on my lips overnight for almost the same amount of time to prevent waking in the morning with badly dry and chapped lips. In my mind, this has always worked, but this treatment and the volumes of information I've read since being diagnosed with cancer has highlighted that petroleum jelly actually dries lips. I used a new paraffin and lanolin based ointment last night and it seemed to do the trick ok, so I asked my Radiation Oncologist whether it was ok to use during treatment. She said to keep using this ointment and also gave me something similar to use if the initial one runs out.

Other than this, she seemed to be pleased with my progress. I have a meeting with the Radio Oncologist or his registrar each week, during which time they monitor my health and provide mitigation strategies if required.

I got home around 4.45 after another reasonably sedate drive home. It will gradually get busier over the next week or so as holiday makers return to work and school recommences.

I did some more work when I got home. Vicki got home around 6.30 after her shift and we made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. A simple meal that is very tasty. After washing up we sat down to watch more episodes of Outlander, during which I completed my M&T Routine.

I started to nod-off during the second episode of Outlander so I went to bed. It was 10.30.