Its been a while since I updated my blog on here, primarily because I maintain my blog mostly on Google+ and Facebook and haven't felt much like reposting everything again here. That and latterly I have been busy,
So, whats been going on? Well, after my last post I picked up a couple of bugs from the kids - a cold and a touch of the old norovirus. It was not pleasant, I can tell you. The cold quickly (in a matter of days) turned into a nasty chest infection - I remember one friday night where all I could do was stand over a sink as I coughed up mucus and saliva. It litterally poured out of me, I couldn't do anything - lying in bed just made me cough, standing just caused all this stuff to run into my chest and make the cough worse and there was nothing I could take to help. Needless to say I was on the phone to NHS Direct the next day (the saturday) and eventually got an appointment with the emergency GP (it should not be as hard as that to see a GP on a weekend, but thats another matter). He gave me a large prescription for liquid anti-biotics (there was no way I could manage tablets at this point) and sent me home - fortunately I had a regular appointment with the oncologist on the following monday - prior to my radio - and he made sure my blood tests were OK and promptly made me nil by mouth. I also had to see the dieticians, due to the cough and the illness I had not managed to eat much (or indeed anything) let alone manage any of the fortisips I was supposed to be using. I was sent home with a supply of liquid food and told to use my pump. At this point I felt too ill to argue. Fortunately I had gotten onto treatment for the chest infection just in time, much longer and I'd have been admitted.
The next few days (fortunately this was my last week of radio) were hard, laying on that table and having the mask on whilst feeling the need to cough and worry about any attack of choking because of the vast amounts of saliva I was producing at this point was, as you can imagine, the worst. To top it off I had developed thrush again and my mouth was pretty much agony. By the end of the week it was impossible to talk too. I made it through the last of the radio though, I didn't miss any, it was something of a relief I can tell you.
The next fortnight was horrible, side effects from the radio suddenly cut in, not sure why, but I had massive burns down one side of my tongue, my voice went completely, my throat was red raw from the cough and the stomach bug I had picked up and generally all I could do was lie down - I was totally washed out at this point, on the food pump 10 hours a day and generally feeling like total cr*p. Fortunately the pain wasn't bad and I could control it with asprin mouthwashes and the gelclair sachets.
Finally the saliva started to calm down after about 10 days from the end of the radio, slowly my tongue healed and the burns to my mouth faded. I slowly regained my voice, I could barely stand to speak a few words at first, the burnt side of my tongue being massively sensitive to movement, but at least I wasn't just grunting or resorting to bits of paper again.
Since then things have improved rapidly, my tongue has healed up (as expected my mouth in incredibly sensitive to heat, cold and any kind of spice) and I am starting to taste food again. I'm off the pump, I was nil by mouth over a month all told - but I have been off the pump completely and eating (and maintaining my weight) for two weeks now. The PEG is coming out tomorrow, I'm happy to report. I am doing some work again, starting to feel a bit more like myself.
My face is still swollen and I miss the beard, it was only short but felt more comfortable with it. My speech is still a bit slurred, there are certain sounds that I just can't quite get right yet, but its improving nicely. After a good three weeks or so of not being able to talk at all it feels like a massive improvement. We have managed a short family holiday too, only to a caravan, but apart from being worn out on more than one occassion I coped and we spent some good family time together. We're even getting a puppy - its good for the children to have something positive to think about and whilst I am not a dog person, I must admit to getting caught up in the excitement and looking forward to bringing the little chap home. I still get tired, my shoulders are the worst - they ache and get tired really fast, I also feel the loss of strength in my legs quite keenly and I'm looking forward to doing some regular exercise once the peg is out, I have promised myself that I will get back into Karate (I am a black belt, or I was a couple of years back) even if it will have to be slow going at first.
Next week is my first checkup, first of the monthly ones anyway, so we wait to see if anything crops up. So far the oncologist has had a good feel around and was very happy with things, he could feel no lumps of bumps so it looks positive. This is the hard part I guess, waiting to see if anything is going to happen, waiting to see if I am cancer free. Time will tell but we are being positive, I feel pretty good about it all - glad to have gotten the hardest bit done and out the way and be on the mend.
