The Arial Campaign Hits the Halfway Point!

Not much to report except that today was radiation treatment number 18. That puts me over halfway done with the major portion of the treatment plan. Just to update people the major treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma is 7 weeks of radiation along with 3 chemo treatments. Its a fairly intense treatment plan. I took a look at the completion rate of some of the studies and roughly 65% of the people starting the treatment plan complete it. Right now I have completed 18 out of 35 radiation treatments and 2 out of the 3 major chemo treatments. That puts me 51% done with radiation and two thirds of the way done with the major chemo portion. At this point I am feeling confident that I will complete the major treatment portion of the plan on schedule. Yippee!!

Of course afterwards there is a follow up treatment plan of up to 3 chemo treatments. That treatment is a reduced version of the chemo drug I was on during radiation along with an infusion of something else. From what I have been able to learn this treatment is designed to get any stray cancer cells. When talking to the people up at Rosswell this is the one area that there hasn't been much comparison studies on. There hasn't been any studies comparing the effectiveness using IMRT radiation and chemo at the same time with the follow up chemo versus not having the follow up chemo. From what I understand they will rescan me at the end of the radiation as a baseline to see what else needs to be done and determine the number of treatments from there.

The tumors are definitely shrinking in my neck. I can't really tell about the ones in the nasopharyngeal region. Ever since the second week that area has felt better. The radiation oncologist did take a look with a scope a week and a half ago and there definitely was progress in that area. One of the the things that would be nice to have but isn't possible is a regular update on how the tumors are shrinking. I am not asking for something fancy but it would be nice to have weekly updates, maybe with a visual telestrator type of prompt, on how the war is going. Then again at the cost of a PET scan that may not be the most practical thing to do but I can dream.

The biggest issue I am having now is the thrush infection. I won't bore you with the details but right after chemo treatments this goes wild in my mouth. Unfortunately with the effects of the radiation the "Miracle Mouthwash" (I just love that name.) isn't as effective. It is just too difficult to take. Today the radiation oncologist prescribed a drug that I can grind up and take via the feeding tube that should help get that knocked down.

I did talk to the nurse at the radiation oncologist office about the recovery time once the radiation is completed. It can take about 4-6 weeks for the throat to recover. The taste buds can take up to 6 months. At first people only start to taste strong flavors and in some cases your taste does get changed permanently. This could put me back to starting to eat normal food again in mid January with my taste coming back in the late spring. One thing I will have to do is alter my food list to start with spicy or strong flavored foods first. Maybe a Stilton blue cheese jalapeno burger with habenaro sauce would be the way to go. Then again maybe I should ask what to start with. :-) I imagine that there is a recommended way to go from an all liquid diet back to a solid one.