Recovery Update: The ups and downs

Its the third week since the end of the last chemo treatment. After this week I enter uncharted territory. Things have settled down at this point. My voice is slowly coming back but I can talk in sentences now. Sometimes its easier than others. A lot of that depends on the mucus situation and how my throat is feeling.

I meet with the medical oncologist this week for my normal post chemo check up. I also hope to learn what the testing schedule is going to be going forward. At this point I have completed all of the treatments (note to self: remember to have champagne as soon as able to. :-)) so what remains is testing to see if there are any remnants of the cancer left and then to keep checking to see if it has come back. I have discussed this with the doctor in the past and with the type of cancer I had if we got all of it then most likely it will not return. This appears to be due to the nature of the type of cancer, that it was caused by a virus and not some type of genetic or environmental type cause. At least that is my understanding. Of course it only takes a few rogue cancer cells that remain behind the scenes that haven't been killed to cause the cancer to recur. That is part of the reason for the follow up chemo treatments that were oh so much fun. They were designed to finish off any cancer cells that the initial chemo and radiation didn't get.

The other big topic of discussion for the next appointment is recovery. My first interest is of course my throat. It is still sore and I do need to have the fentanal patch to keep it under control. The question is what, if anything, can I do about the swallowing. It may be nothing and it will just take time but I still plan to ask if there is anything that I can do. My goal is to take it slow. I don't plan to start out with a garbage plate or anything, as tasty as that may be. My initial goal is to just start to consume liquids such as smoothies and such. Part or the reason for this is to help increase my calorie intake. Using the feeding tube and the new "nutrition in a can" has helped maintain the weight but I really won't be able to start to put weight back on until I can consume calories on a more regular basis without the hassle of the tube. Its not that I am looking to pack on the pounds right away (Though there are at least 10 pounds designated for junk food weight gain. :-)) but being able to consume more calories will help increase my energy level. Right now that is the other big side effect that seems to vary by the day. Some days my energy level is fine others it is non existent. Some of that is related to the effects of the chemo treatments and will take awhile to come back but I think part of it is due to the amount of calories I take in. Either way the ability to enjoy a strawberry milkshake is my first goal as far as food intake goes.

Outside of that I have a few other questions regarding some of the side effects that I am experiencing and what to expect from them. They are nothing major but just something I am curious about. One of the side effects is the occasional ringing in the ears. That seems to come and go so hopefully it will eventually go away. The other side effect is some loss of coordination in my hands. At times there isn't any problems but then other times there are tremors in my finger tips that make doing some things awkward. Once again this seems to come and go with out any pattern so I am curious as to what the doctors thoughts are on this.

Now that I am finished with the treatments it is also time to go back up to Roswell to have them check me out. They had requested a follow up visit during the second round of chemo treatments but there was no way I was able to make the trip to Buffalo then. Now that the treatments are done the trip shouldn't be a problem and it will be good to get their opinion on how the treatment went and their advice on the side effects and what happens going forward.