As of last Friday evening I have been unable to talk at all. This is due to damage to my throat caused by the radiotherapy. I am in pain for pretty much all of the time –I have upped the morphine dosage but even this is struggling to cope now. I am now officially no food, liquid or communication by mouth!
I only have 7 radiotherapy sessions and 1 chemotherapy to go.
My understanding is that they will assign a speech and language therapist to me once my treatment ceases and I begin the recovery phase. Who knows, I could end up with a nice public-school accent or
a singing voice like Matt Monro!
One welcome side-effect is the fatigue – I am now officially sleeping for England. I go to bed at 1pmish, sleep until 5 or 6 (pain permitting) and then go back to bed at 8pm and sleep through until 4am. At least the time is going quickly.
Although the recovery phase is something of an unknown to me I'm assuming that my voice will be one of the first things to come back (before swallowing food/liquid etc.).
I am now unable to manage the train to hospital each day. My Lynne has taken the next couple of weeks off and she is driving me each day.
Overall things are a bit grim but I feel that progress is being made.
