The new beginning

The doctors had given us the expectation that I would bounce back pretty quickly once treatment had finished. Our expectation was that it was immediate, but this wasn't the case. I was in agony for another two weeks post treatment. It was brutal. The pain and constant feeling of being violently and cronically unwell was relentless, but thankfully Vic was very capable and helped with my neck bandages. I still wasn't eating, but had begun to sip water again.

Around week three post treatment, I started to notice a significant difference in how I was feeling. A couple of things had happened in the meantime. The redness in my neck had dissipated pretty quickly in the second week post treatment, and I was feeling hungry again - although I had no idea what I'd be able, or want to, eat. From this point onwards, we began experimenting with food.

My mouth and throat was dry due to no longer having any working saliva glands. Everyone was telling us to use Biotene moisturising mouth wash, but this left a film in my mouth and had a flavour of its own. I was lucky in that I had never lost my taste, other than for sugars and water.

Water had begun to taste normal again, and for this I was extremely thankful. I think we take it for granted, but fresh water is simply the best taste ever.

The other remedy we were advised, was to have meals that required a lot of sauces. This turned out to be a reasonably easy remedy, but counter to this was having sauces every night with your meal makes you sick of the sauce flavour. How many different types of sauces are there really? Nevertheless, we persevered and after a few nights out for dinner and many weeks of trial and error, we are getting used to what works, and I am pretty much eating normally, even without sauces. It just means I always need a bottle of water when I eat so that I can replace the saliva that would normally assist in moving food from my mouth down my throat. Not ideal, but it means we don't have to prepare special meals for me every night, I can just eat what the whole family eats.

Post treatment, the weather was still warm. I still had to be careful in the sun so covered up as much as possible when outside. I wanted to start feeling normal as soon as possible, so I mowed the lawns and cut the edges. I was knackered after having done this and slept.

The heat was welcome though. To help relieve the discomfort from my neck, I would float in the pool as well as do some very slow breast stroke, hoping it would help my muscles get used to exercise again.

It maybe a new normal, but at least I was progressing back to reasonable health again, finally.

Or so I thought.