From Vegetarian to Atkins

Dilation procedure VIII went as expected it got me back to 15 MM. Right now I am just hovering at that level. The next procedure is in 4-6 weeks and after that I am going to ask to go back on the 2 - 3 week schedule. I seemed to make forward progress when there was less time between procedures.

One interesting thing is that my efforts to try to swallow with less water have really started to have an impact. Aside from the downstream benefits of drinking less water I also am also able to eat more items than I have been in the past. There were items that should have been small enough swallow but presented a problem. I have just started to be able to eat home cooked hamburgers with cheese, bacon and lots of mayo with some problems but I can get it down. Lately I have been having those for lunch and dinner just to get the practice. (O.K... also for the taste. Lets face it everything tastes better with bacon!) I am hopeful that burgers follow the same track that omelettes followed. With omelettes it was a major issue just to be able to eat one in an hour. Then I got it down to half an hour and now I can eat one in about 20 minutes without much to drink. That isn't back to where I was at but it is far better than where I was.

This does get into one of the things I feel is lacking (out of the many things I feel are lacking) in the Cancer industry. There really aren't many "how-to" guides out there, in particular for us head neck and throat cancer folk. Swallowing is an example of this. As I have found out there are a lot of aspects to swallowing. I was focused initially on just dry mouth and the esophagus opening. Just as important is technique. Strengthening the muscles in my throat and even posture I have found are very important. This is where a how-to guide would have really helped. Another guide that could be written is "Projectile Vomiting: Time Tested Techniques For Hitting The Bucket.". That one would have been very useful. My point is that I think most people that get cancer are newbies and learn by trial and error. Simple things like when should you call the doctor to talk about things like pain meds (I was way behind the curve on that one) or nausea would have been nice to have.