Another Step

Deb and I visited with my radiation doc this morning for a regularly scheduled check-up. He seemed genuinely pleased to see us, I think because he likes us and because my progress has been so positive since I had my last radiation session back in early August.

(You may recall that radiation was a vital part of my overall treatment regimen: We weren't sure that the major surgery had removed the entire primary tumor, and that my recovery from cancer needed the radiation to eliminate any part of the tumor that might still be in my head/neck area. So the rad doc worked up a specific area-vs-radiation-intensity program for his machine to follow -- to treat a cancer type with which he was less-than-familiar. So my recovery says that his program worked. Hurray for him! Hurray for me! Hurray for all of us!)

He told me I looked really well, and he was pleased that I continued to gain weight.

We talked about the numbness and tingling that I'm feeling in my right foot and both my hands (which is called a "small-fiber neuropathy," I think...), and he said we should keep an eye on it. He said it probably wouldn't get any worse and might well go away. And both of us agreed that, if this were my biggest problem, I was one fortunate dude. (Although he didn't use the word "dude." I doubt he's ever used the word "dude." And, although I''ve never met them, I doubt that his kids will ever use the word "dude." At least not in his hearing...)

He asked me whether my ability to taste foods was returning, and I told him definitely yes, but that I still had to avoid spicy foods.

He told me: "Then don't eat them."

I said: "But this means no Szechuan food!"

He brightened visibly and said: "Oh, you like Chinese food?!?" and I said yes. (He's Chinese -- very Chinese -- and I felt like I had just pitched him a belt-high fastball.) He's a busy man, so we avoided talking Szechuan food. But I would like to have got some recommendations for future use...

He probed my head/neck area very completely and told me he couldn't find anything to indicate a return of the cancer. I told him that I had been waiting for him to say that, and he smiled.

Then, he anesthetized my nose and throat and put a long lighted probe (laryngoscope?) into my nose and down the back of my throat. As he was doing this, he told me that my larynx looked perfectly normal and that my pharynx also looked perfectly normal. As he withdrew the instrument, he told Deb and me that "It looks like you haven't had any radiation treatment at all."

Oh, baby!

After so many sessions with this guy which were sometimes rather grim and determined "We just gotta keep grinding this out" sessions, it was wonderful to visit him and his marvelous staff and have nothing but good news and warm feelings all the way around.

Just in time for the holidays.