Hold the Pizza

...at least for a while.

Okay, my last scheduled chemo session is this Wednesday, July 29th. And my last scheduled radiation session is (I'm fairly sure) next Tuesday, August 4th. And I had been so focused on these two dates that I had overlooked something rather important:

It's after those two dates that I can start to heal.

First up is my tongue -- which is keeping me from eating solid food of any kind. In fact, even drinking tap water is painful at this point.

Once my tongue is functioning dependably, I can start working my way up through soup, yogurt and scrambled eggs to more substantial food. (There are first-person stories of people who've gone through the same treatment regimen as mine who have taken months to graduate back to a wide variety of solid foods. I don't think that will happen to me, but who knows?)

And once that is well underway, I can start considering when to have my food tube removed. Clearly, I need to be absolutely sure that I can orally ingest all the calories and other nutrients I need before the tube comes out.

And once the food tube is removed, there's some requisite healing time for my tummy -- to close up the holes that the food tube required.

So yes, Tuesday August 4th will be a day of celebration. But the selection of refreshments for the "party" will look a lot like the diet choices of Monday, August 3.

No pizza. Not yet.