Whaddaya Mean...

... I'm not "out of the woods" yet?

Geez, things people don't tell you.

Three weeks ago, I had this very clear image as to what I would be doing by the end of this week -- the last week of chemo and radiation therapy sessions. And that image involved chowing down on moo shu pork and swilling a fine Pinot Noir.

Hmmph. Not even close.

I'm still waiting for my tongue to heal up. (Every day it's just a little bit better, but note the use of the term "just a little.") And this heavy mucus deposition in my mouth refuses to stop. And that started to get downright scary several nights ago, when I would wake up with a mouth half-full of this gunk and feeling like if I moved the wrong way, I would start to choke on it. So I would rocket off to the bathroom and spend five minutes clearing my mouth.

And I'm still almost totally dependent on this Jevity nourishment-in-a-can stuff (although I did polish off a vanilla milk shake the other day, but that wound up being as much work as pleasure). But I'm holding off on trying solid food until I can depend on my tongue not giving me fits and feeling worse the next day for the efforts involved. Timing on the Jevity is a lot trickier than it may sound, and there were several days this week when we couldn't get in the suggested six cans. As a result of that and being somewhat dehydrated, I've lost another three pounds this week.

I mean, geez.

A hastily arranged visit to the radiation center for advice today resulted in a trip to the chemo center for an IV injection of 1.5 liters of saline solution to get me re-hydrated. And the doc -- an associate of my radiation doc, and the guy who arranged the IV session -- gave me the following advice: "This may sound strange, but it's not unusual that your first week after therapy sessions is the worst week of all." (I'm guessing that's because my body has become accustomed to the therapy sessions, and is now having a bit of trouble making the trip back to normalcy. Or maybe it's just the frustration of thwarted expectations. Who knows? It just is what it is.) But the doc continued by saying, "So next week is the first week that you should experience some real healing and return to normalcy. But this weekend might still be a problem." Ah.

So the radiation doc had some other sensible suggestions that we plan to follow pretty carefully.

And at the chemo center, it was pointed out to Deb and me that keeping my weight up probably depended on getting enough water at least as much as getting the recommended six cans of Jevity inside me. Hmmm, hadn't thought about that, but it makes sense. Water is pretty heavy.

...

I mean, geez.