Recovery Update

Posted by Roie R. Black on Fri 23 May 2008

It has been almost a month since the radiation treatments (and chemo) ended and It is past time for an update. I am now in full recovery mode. The last few weeks of teaching were a bit hard, but I got through them reasonably well, as long as the pain patch worked. The break lasts two weeks, and I have just been resting and trying to get ready for the Summer session (only one class to teach thankfully). I found out that I get really tired easily. So, I keep my outings fairly short, then fall back into resting mode. (I even slept in until almost noon one day - yikes!) I spend a lot of time in bed resting, reading, and checking email.

We visited the radiation doctor about a week ago, and he said that my mouth is in really good shape considering what I went through. As of now, the pain is under control - but I do notice that the surgery area starts to feel pretty raw as the patch starts to wear off. For a while, I took another pain medicine to help with that, but things are healing enough that I am now down to just the patch and most of the time, things feel pretty good. My mouth is still very dry,something I notice especially at night - but that is something I can deal with by either rinsing my mouth or drinking a little water.

My primary goal now is to get my mouth to open up enough to start eating again. I found out that I can drink water and chocolate milk - both of which taste OK in spite of the library paste taste in my mouth, which is also decreasing noticeably.

The doctors tell me I will see improvements each day about now, and I do feel like I am a bit stronger now. I see my surgeon next week, and I know he is going to yell at me for not working on opening my mouth more, but I hope he is happy with the recovery process.

My support system is still working, something I am very thankful for. It is hard just waiting to feel better, but healing takes it's own sweet time. Cheryl has been doing a wonderful job of keeping me on track with medicine and appointments, and we are both looking forward to getting back to a more normal life!

Thanks again for all your support and prayers, they mean a lot.

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tags: Cancer