20 November 2006

2-1 day. Just a reminder for anyone reading this blog. I'm doing this mainly as a living document for me as a way of tracking what's going on with me, to friends and family that want to keep up as to exactly what's going on with me IRT this cancer treatment and maybe even more importantly, to anyone who might find themselves in this situation and wants to know what to expect.
I sometimes wonder if I'm putting too much information down or not enough or if it's just senseless BS that nobody really cares to read or know about in the first place...
Who knows!
Anyway, like I mentioned it's 2-1 day. That would be 2nd week, 1st day.
Feel ten times better today than I did a few days ago. The nausea is gone and the extreme exhaustion is gone. I think some of the side effects that I've been reading about are starting to kick in though. I keep telling myself that it might be in my head, but after several days of experiencing them, Marjie and I feel that it is the side effects of the Chemo therapy.
Weird taste in my mouth!!! It seems like my taste buds aren't working as they should. Things don't taste as good as they normally do. For instance, during the football games yesterday, I had a craving for a chili cheese dog. We went to Walmart and bought the 33 cent can of chili for chili dogs, boiled hot dogs, warmed the buns, and put melted American cheese on top with some onions. To me, that's the perfect chili dog...It was good, but just didn't taste quite right. Burger for lunch today...still not right, gum isn't right, Coke isn't the same, everything seems like I need more salt added to it, but it still doesn't make it right.
My tongue feels funny and the inside of my cheeks feel coarse. No sores in my mouth though. I've been reading up on "dry mouth" which concerns me greatly and is one of the side effects of radiation, which I haven't done yet, but have bought a couple products that I've read about on the internet to see if they might help. The dentist recommended rinsing with ACT fluoride rinse...did that, but think that it might be an issue later on due to the alcohol in it. We bought a product today called "Biotene". Actually we picked up a bottle of the mouthwash and a bottle of Biotene oral balance dry mouth moisturizing liquid. Check the website out if your interested. Haven't tried it yet, but will report on it later. Anyway, the mouthwash is a mouthwash and the other stuff comes in a small bottle and says to squirt directly into mouth several times daily, whenever relief is needed.??????? Guess I'll find out.
Saw some other stuff there that I might try: Salivart
My mouth isn't grossed out or anything yet, but as of today, it feels different and my tastes have gone out the window. Something I'm hoping comes back when this is all said and done.
Picked up some lemon drops (sugarless)...Helps a little.
Had a doctors appointment with Dr. Hollis (The Doctor who put in the feeding tube) for a checkup. Marjie and I have been noticing a little puss on the bandage when she changes the dressing and we were both a little concerned. The doc looked at it and said not to worry and that it looked fine to him. He did prescribe some antibiotics (Cephalexin) for me to take for 10 days, especially since I was on the chemo medicine, he didn't' want to take any chances with an infection, but still assured us that we were taking care of the wound properly and that it looked good to him.
Left his office and headed to Portsmouth to fill the script....Dropped Marjie off in front of the hospital with instructions to get the ticket and wait for me while I parked the truck. It takes so long at the Naval Hospital that anything you can do to save some time is time well spent. By the time I got up there after parking, we were still over 50 numbers behind in the line...Screw that!!!! We left and went to the civilian pharmacy. Cost $3 and took ten minutes, plus I got to shop for the dry mouth stuff. Tricare Prime is awesome! Meds are free at the Naval Hospital and only costs $3 out in town for generics and $9 for the original....I think it costs me 3 bucks to warm my truck up. This should have been a no brainer. From now on, we're going to the civilian pharmacy. Oh and by way, if I understand things correctly, the Naval Hospital gives you generic drugs as their first choice anyway.
Finished up with all that around noon and Marjie wanted to get her nails done, so I went and got a burger while she pampered herself for a little while.
Got back home around 1300 and figured since it was a nice day and I was feeling good, that we ought to get all the leaves picked up in the backyard. Spent the rest of the day doing that and went for a walk afterwards.
Feeling good now...like I mentioned, side effects so far is the loss/lack of taste in my mouth, the fact that my tongue feels odd and my mouth feels different......and have been noticing a ringing in my ears periodically....hard to explain, but about 20 times today, my ears would start ringing for no reason at all.
That's all for now! Lasagna for dinner tonight.