Well, today we visited with my primary surgeon, and he said "You are doing great!". (Boy I am getting tired of that phrase!) Actually, he was very happy with my progress and decided to yank out the feeding tube which has been my primary source of nourishment for the last month. Now, I am stuck! I have to eat the old fashioned way! He did leave me with a few teeth on my upper jaw, and I still have all my teeth on the lower jaw, so eating is possible. After all the treatments are over, I will get a new dental plate to fill in the missing upper teeth.
My swallowing is much better, but I still have problems with light fluids like water or soft drinks! Sigh!
Taking out the feeing tube was actually pretty interesting. It seems that when doctors put in tubes like this for whatever purpose, they usually stitch the tube in place with sutures to keep it from slipping out. All he had to do was snip the suture and pull. The tube slid out with no issues at all. All of sudden, I can get to my mouth without running into the tube, and I do not have to worry about someone yanking on the durn thing. I also do not need to drape the tube over my ear when I try to eat, or stick the end in my pocket after feeding.
I did have one sort of nasty experience with the tube (at least it upset my wife!). The tube has a shutoff valve on the end of it. You pull the valve out and plug it back in so you can push fluids through the tube with a big syringe. When all the fluids are in, you replace the valve so it closes off the tube. At least, you are supposed to close the tube off.
One evening, I forgot to close the valve after "dinner", and just stuck the end of the tube in my shirt pocket. A few minutes later I noticed that the front of my shirt was wet. "Dinner" was working its way back up the tube and soaking into my shirt. Now this is not as bad as having fully processed dinner come out of some other place, but Cheryl said that the smell was horrible (I could not smell it), and it took her quite a while to pre-wash the shirt to get it wearable again. Such fun!
Testing my ears
My primary surgeon is an Ear-Nose-Throat specialist, and he said the work he did was very close to my left ear. He was worried that he might damage the hearing in that ear, so today he did a hearing test and everything came out fine. Before doing that he vacuumed out my ear canal to get rid of dried blood and whatever. (Have you seen the ad on television where the guy shoves a Q-Tip up his ear and yells? That was me today!)
After the test, he pronounced my hearing fine, and we are hoping the radiation does no further damage in that area.
On to Radiation
The big news for today is that I am well enough to move on to the next big step: radiation. I am scheduled for 35 treatments (5 days a week for 7 weeks), just like I did before. Perhaps this time I really will glow in the dark!
Hopefully, these treatments will shrink the "clam" on my cheek so my face will look more normal. My doctor's comment today was that it looked like a small boob, only they forgot to put the nipple on! (Gee, thanks, doc! I needed that! (Actually, I have used that same analogy more than once, but I like the clam analogy better!)
We set up an appointment for next week to start getting ready for radiation. . They will need to build another "noodle strainer", which is a plastic mesh they form fit to my head (possible now that the feeding tube i gone). They clamp this mask over my head to lock me down to the table while they aim the radiation beam at the area to be treated. Then the doctor will need to map out a treatment plan using the PET and CT scans they did before surgery. In a visit to this doctor before surgery, he said that the area we will treat this time is above the old area from five years ago, and he is confident he can treat the entire area just fine. (We were both happy that there is no sign of cancer in the area he treated before!)
The only problem with this process is that it gets progressively harder and harder. When I did this previously, I was teaching through the whole thing, and toward the end, I had to stop near the end because the pain level got to high. We will be talking about what to expect next week, but I suspect I already know what will happen. My only real concern is that I do not want to lose my new ability to open my mouth wide enough to actually eat. Before surgery, the muscles that let my mouth open locked up at less than about half an inch. You really cannot eat very well with that small an opening!. Now, I have about a full inch and may be able to work that open more with exercise. That small amount makes a world of difference!
Keep on praying
Once again, Cheryl and I want to thank everyone who has read this blog, or been in touch with us by phone or by email. Your prayers and kind words of support are really making this ordeal much more bearable. We will never be able to thank you enough!
Comments
There are no comments yet.