Thursday 23rd June 2005

I'm starting to feel better every day now.. :-)

Went to the hospital to visit my dad who has been there a week now, he originally went in for a blood transfusion last Wednesday but on Friday he developed a blood clot in his leg so they started giving him blood thinning injections to break it down but yesterday when we went they'd had to stop them because that was causing more bleeding in his bladder (caused by bladder cancer) but if he didn't have the injections then bits of the clot could break off and travel elsewhere and cause more problems so they were at a catch 22.

Today when we went the doctor said that his urine was looking much better so they are going to start the injections again but he's now dehydrated with not eating or drinking properly so while we were there they put him on a drip he also wasn't as chatty as yesterday in fact yesterday you couldn't shut him up..lol.. but today he's entirely opposite and slept most of the visiting time.

On the 30th of May we had a visitor to the garden in the middle of the day which was rather unusual as they are normally a nocturnal creature, what was it? I think my subject line gives it away..smiles... See below the pictures I took of him before he wandered off.

Wednesday 22nd June 2005

I just want to apoligise to Peter for not answering sooner about his comment on my last blog entry, I have been waiting for today so that I could answer him properly as I didn't know myself what was happening.

I had to go for my first real check up yesterday the last one was just to see if I was recovering from the radiotherapy not from the cancer, last week the oncoligist wanted to know if I was eating okay and if I was still in pain etc and he also checked the skin on my neck.

In answer to Peter's question I can now answer no I'm not having chemo..smiles...Yesterday, the doctor first of all put a small mirror down my throat but he said he couldn't see anything, that in itself gave me hope because the very first time I went and I saw Mr England he could see the lesion with a mirror, so he asked the nurse for a scope this is a small flexible tube with a camera on the end first of all he sprayed something up my nose to make it numb then inserted the camera, it didn't hurt but it was a little uncomfortable after a few ahhhs and errrs which he asked me to do he said that it was all clear except for it still being a little sore but he could see no sign of the cancer and that it had all gone... yeahhhhh, what a relief. He then went on to tell me that I'd have to go back once a month for a year then once every two months for another year.

Of course I'm still having some side effects from the radiotherapy my throat is still sore and a little painful when I eat, my voice isn't back to normal yet but it seems to improve day by day and the skin on my neck now looks like a really good sun tan and I'm still having to put the cream on to stop it drying out and wear a scarf when outside to stop the sun getting to it but none of that matters anymore they are stuff I can cope with knowing they will eventually go.

Monday 13th June 2005

Coming along slow but sure now my treatment has finished. Went to see the oncologist on Friday (10th June) he was really pleased at how I was doing and when he felt my neck he said it felt good and he couldn't feel anything bad.
The skin on my neck is also looking a lot better except for one small patch right at the front that is still a bit tender and sore but each day it's getting less and less the rest is now turning a lovely golden brown like a great sun tan wish the rest of my body was like it...lol.. I will take a photo of it later and put it in here ( my neck that is not my body!..hehehe)
As for eating I have no problems now, my throat is still feeling slightly sore and I'm still on the painkillers just to help at meal times but nothing as bad as it was.
I'm also sleeping through the night now and not waking up to keep having drinks of water.
One thing that I wish would get better and that is my voice but having said that some days it is better then others on the worst days it's really hard to talk and people have a hard time understanding me, I did ask the oncoligist if he had an idea of how long I'd be without my voice and he said it could be a while yet but he said that one day I'd be without it then the next it could come back just like that and he snapped his fingers. Other then that I'm feeling good.
Now the next important thing is the appointment at the hospital in about 2 weeks time, when I see the whole team and when Mr England (ENT) has a look with a mirror to see if everything is healing and looking okay on my vocal cords.
Catch you later when I put in the photo...

I'm afraid I'm a couple of days late adding the photo, as you can see it's looking a lot better even though it still looks sore right at the front it doesn't feel as bad as it looks this photo was taken 22 days after treatment had finished...

Thursday 2nd June 2005

I was supposed to see Mandy the cancer nurse 7 days after I'd finished my treatment but she has been away on holiday so she arranged it for today while I was at the hospital with my dad on his last day of treatment (Thursday, my 9th day after finishing) I told her my neck had started to feel sore and tight so she had a look and said that she could make it feel more comfortable by applying the dressing that I'm wearing in the picture below which I took when I got home. She put lots of cooling gel underneath and I have to keep this on for two days and keep squirting the gel down from the top so that it keeps it moisturised other then that she said she was really pleased at how I'm doing and was quite impressed when I told her I'd had a bag of crisps this morning...lol