The next four days - Still not eating or drinking

Over the next two days, my radiotherapy burns got progressively worse, but the morphine patches were doing a great job and my supplementary intake had increased to 4mls each time.

The most serious issue I was now dealing with was a lack of drinking, eating and going to the toilet. One, of course, compounds the other.

Vicki was worried on two fronts. One, because a lack of food and fluids could mean my body's organs could shut down and also because the lack of fluid directly impacts the likelihood of me shifting any waste through my bowels. No fluids results in solid waste.

The other issue was the emergence of the hiccups. They were relentless and our usual remedies, in my case holding my breath normally always worked, didn't work.

At our meeting with the Radiation Oncologist, I mentioned the constipation and the Doctor recommended I use some laxatives. It was a fairly common, well known brand and we picked it up immediately so I could start taking it that night. He also recommended some medicine for my hiccups, but we were unable to find a Pharmacy that had it in stock. The local Pharmacist at Ballajura kindly ordered it for us but it would take a day to get it.

By Saturday night, Vicki had had enough of me not drinking and rang a good friend of hers who worked at Joondalup Hospital. Luckily for us, she was working in the Emergency Department this day in triage, so she arranged for me to see a Doctor pretty quickly. The Doctor agreed that I need to get some intravenous fluids. I ended up having 3 bags that night, and another two bags the following morning.

This perked me up a bit, but I still was not 100% right.

I also started taking Metamucil, although I found it difficult to keep down. Swallowing anything in one long drink is very difficult and often results in me vomiting the contents back up again.

By Sunday night, it had now been nearly two weeks since I'd 'opened my bowels' and while I wasn't in any pain, I knew it wasn't good that I hadn't been to the toilet. I had no idea just how bad it would be.

I do wonder how patients go if they don't have a Nurse with Vic's experience, friends and colleagues to help them, because there is no way I'd have gotten through the next few days experience without them.

Several more of those paper-like cuts around my fingers and feet came up. They were still very painful. They are called fissures, and are a side-effect of the chemotherapy drug. Basically, your skin gets very dry and brittle, then it just breaks open at various points, forming these little cuts. The other thing I've noticed, is I bruise very easily. They don't hurt at all, but it is odd to see bruises emerge in places where you've been holding your iPhone, for example. Weird.

Vicki also picked up a Nebuliser machine from the chemist and I had been using that to try to reduce the amount of mucus flooding out of my mouth. It helped dramatically reduce the problem so I was using it up to 4 times or more a day. It essentially just pumps a fine mist or steam of normal saline into a face mask, which you then breathe in normally. I have no pain when using it but I do need to put some paraffin wax or Vaseline jelly on my lips beforehand as it also dries out my already dry lip.

I have been having one Neb prior to bed in an effort to reduce the gunk in my mouth when I wake up. So far, it hasn't really helped in that, but I get onto it after cleaning up my mouth and it is a good start to the day.

My Sunday night was much like the last few nights. Vicki trying to get me to eat and drink and me trying to force something down without vomiting. In the end, neither of us had a victory. I would try, only to vomit, or I simply couldn't. It was difficult.

I had come to realise that the only time I was completely without pain and anxiety was when I was asleep, so I tended to go to bed a little earlier than I was when the program started. I headed off to bed around 10pm after giving my mouth, neck and throat a clean.