To all in the same boat,
its been a bit of ground rush the last few weeks but 2 weeks post my Biopsy, i was sitting in a doctors office being told I had Stage 4 cancer of the neck and throat, impacting my tonsils, tongue and Lymph nodes on my left side of neck, hence termed as regional not distant, but not local, so not the best sort of news.
Was gently told I had 48% without Chemo and 55% with Chemo of getting passed the 5 years...I signed up for the 55%, I was not really aware of the numbers till the Macmillan nurse told me after as I was saying' could be worse, could be a number 10' that number 4 is the highest it goes...poop.
Hazel, The radioactive girl on here, sent me a link to a Scottish chaps diary of a similar journey that I face, inspirational and made me more sure that I was going to be in the right camp for survival.
So, finished my consultation, had my mask made (bit like a Turkish shave only without the shave). If you are awaiting to have this, the only advice I would give is think of something nice and put yourself in that nice picture and forget the pipe in your arm and breath normally.
Consultation was ok, Stage 4, regional HPV so good for radiation and Chemo, another camera up my nose and ahhhh....I was told 9-12 months off work, I've never been off that much, but then again I've never had this sort of issue.
The face mask fitting, this was a bit like the Turkish shave only with plastic. my advice to anyone following me is to visualize your somewhere else and hold that vision for 12 mins and keep breathing and forget that you have a line in your arm and plastic on your face that's pinned to a board. It goes really quick.
After surviving the army and beyond with no tattoos, I now have a small black dot on my chest, my first inking to line the mask up with. I've considered joining a biker gang post therapy or the Triads, with such a tattoo, but fear my inability to speak Chinese or ride a motorbike with any degree of proficiency would exclude me from these teams, despite my inking.
My fun really starts the 30/11/2020 @ 12:00, a lovely dose of Chemo followed by a spot of sun lamp :-), before that on the 16th, three teeth removed to make way for the radiation to hit the spot perfectly, and a feeding tube (PEG) fitting on 19/20th in case my throat is so bad I cant get fish and chips down it. Hoping I will not need it but I'm a wimp at heart.
Already brushing my teeth with high fluoride paste, mouth washing, and ensuring I keep my weight at 13st 5.
You are reading the blog of one very determined man, preparing for the next 20 weeks of life with one focus...week 21
Michael
PS - 12 weeks form now I will have another CT scan, 3 weeks after radiotherapy has stopped, and allowing one week for results to be analyzed, this scan will show my cancer is dead.
