First, what's going right:
As indicated in the previous posting, there are a lot of facets to my recuperation that have made life either a little easier or a lot easier. And it's clear to me that whatever burdens I may be carrying now -- trying to get back to normal -- are manageable and will remain so. (Deepest thanks to "Anonymous" on the last posting for reminding me of this!)
Some of the burdens (like this mucus stuff) are downright annoying, but nothing worse. I am not in any noticeable pain, nor am I taking any drugs to suppress pain.
I'm now drinking fruit juices whenever I want, with only the slightest complaint from my poor, battered tongue. So I can now swallow my collection of pills in mango juice or papaya juice rather than burying them in applesauce or yogurt. It's been explained to me that the more I use my mouth for ingesting nourishment, the sooner it will "remember" what it's supposed to be doing and accelerate its return to regular service.
Deb and I have a plan in place to substitute a different meal (Instant Breakfast or other protein beverage) each day for a Jevity meal. And work our way out of that to Moo Shu Pork.
On the flip side of going right:
Over the last two days, I have been diagnosed with a yeast infection of the mouth known as "thrush." This may have come about because of the chemotherapy or something else -- not sure. I have lozenges I'm supposed to allow to dissolve in my mouth to suppress this. (I think the lozenges are made of the same material as poker chips. They really don't want to melt in you rmouth.) It's not painful or dangerous, but needs to be dealt with.
And then there's this bump showed up on the right side of my jaw -- the other side from where the cancer was detected. It may just be an infected bug bite -- but it looks strange for that. My E/N/T doc described at length why there's no good reason it should be related directly to my cancer, but he's taken a biopsy just in case. He tells me he may have the result by Monday. (So what are you doing this weekend?)
And y'know, that's one of the big deals about cancer: you undergo these punishing procedures (surgery, chemo, and/or radiation) and hope for nothing. Nothing on the scans. No new bumps. No new discolorations anywhere. No disruption in your breathing or digestion. No new troubling symptoms anywhere. And you spend years continuing to hope for nothing.
It's my sister's roller coaster analogy, and you've got a ticket to ride. You just don't have a ticket to get off...
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What's with this bump all of a sudden? It just showed up out of nowhere? To me, it sounds way too sudden to be related to cancer (more likely related to the thrush?), but I'm glad your doctor's doing a biopsy just to make sure. Now about the weekend....I'm sure glad you have a lot of practice at being in the moment.
ReplyDeleteHi Randy -
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lisa. It just doesn't make sense that after all this radiation and chemotherapy the cancer would pop up like this. Maybe this weekend calls for a stay at home movie marathon.
Martha
Hi Randy,
ReplyDeleteI'm with Martha and Lisa on the bump thing...Glad your doc is checking, just to rule out anything "funky". "Don't worry" is a platitude I will not use...I do like the marathon movie idea or some other equally "distracting" strategy to get through the weekend; staying in the moment. Sending Prayers, Healing and love, as always.
Now that you mention it, it makes sense that the more you use your mouth as intended, the quicker it will start to tone down the mucus and heal in other ways too. I hadn't thought of that before. Our bodies always want to return to balance.
Yeah, thrush or other yeast-related thing are common, I understand, from chemo also getting rid of all the good bacteria that usually fights off the yeast. It does improve over time, but is annoying and unpleasant (I thought painful also, but it sounds like not for you! Yeah!)
I'd love to join you guys for movie-marathon-weekend if I could offer any kind of distraction or humor or anything...I'm with you as you "wait for Nothing" on Monday, in Spirit and in Love.
Diane