Just a very quick update at the 8 month stage. Improvement remains imperceptibly slow on a day by day basis but overall things have continued to head towards my new normal in the past couple of months. I’m off all drugs now apart from ½ a Lansoprazole tablet every morning to keep reflux at bay. (They are absolute little buggers to cut in half!) My neck still gets stiff and sore if I don’t do daily exercises but these are now part of my everyday life now so not a problem. Eating is also getting back to normal apart from that lack of saliva which can make eating anything starchy a challenge. Taste is good though. My excision site and a small patch of gum next to it is still feeling a little raw but there is no pain. This is the one thing that doesn’t seem to improve, even slowly, but it has been like it for months and doesn’t get worse so I’m ok with it. (My registrar says it’s probably just scarring from the RT so that’s kind of reassuring too.) Energy levels are back to where they were prior to all this.
So all in all things slowly continue to settle down and I’m leading a pretty much normal life again. When I think where I was at this time last year - still over a month away from surgery to be followed by chemoradiation - it’s remarkable what my body has been through. I know it’s still quite early days and that every new day is a gift from my team but I remain hopeful that I’ve beaten this thing. I’ve even trained up for and have started a new part-time job over the past couple of months. There’s optimism for you!
All the best to you all.
M
