02 December, 2006

Had a follow up doctor's appointment with Dr. Debo yesterday. He was the surgeon who did the surgery on my neck back in October. He's kind of coordinating this whole thing and has taken a sincere interest in what's been going on in my treatment. I saw him two weeks ago when I was feeling run down, so it was good to see him yesterday when I was feeling pretty good.
Marjie and I noticed a bump on the end of the scar that had a white scab like thing on it and we weren't sure what it was. We suspected it might be a ingrown hair or something. I picked at it and Marjie went after it with tweezers, but it hurt and we didn't' get anywhere, so I decided to have the Doc look at it. Good thing! It turned out to be the end of a stitch with a knot that somehow got pushed to the surface and ended up not getting dissolved like it was supposed to. Good ole Dr. Debo snipped the thing right off without hardly any pain to me and the bump is gone and the scar is good to go now. In fact, you can hardly even notice the scar on my neck anymore.
I had been experiencing a sore throat in the evenings last week and this week it's all but gone, but since he's a Ear Nose and Throat doctor, who better to ask than him. I was concerned because the symptoms I was experiencing were not the same as if I was coming down with a cold or something and I thought it might be an issue with my tonsils due to the chemo treatment. Basically, the sore throat would go away during the day and come back in the evenings. Dr. Debo said that he wasn't too concerned about it and explained something about how your body produces less of something in the evenings which would possibly explain the sore throat and more of something during the days...blah blah blah......Bottom line, he's the doc and I'm not. He looked all around my mouth and throat then sent the scope up through my nose and down my pipes to look all around. This is the same procedure he did when I first visited his office. He took a few pictures of my vocal cords and looked all around with the camera and said all looks well.
So that makes me feel much better. Good check up with him.
I'm feeling pretty good these days...still get a little tired as the day goes on, but a short nap gets me back on track. My taste buds seem to be getting back to normal over the last couple days and since I go back for another round of chemo on Monday, I told Marjie I wanted steak for dinner last night, ribs for dinner tonight and chicken fried steak for dinner Sunday. Figure I should eat all the meat I can while it taste good. Hair kind of quit falling out for the time being. I shaved my head as you all know, so that's not an issue, but I still have a mustache...kind of....it's very thin but still hanging on. Still have the rest of my body hair but think it's thinned a little. I can't pull any of it out like I was able to pull the hair out of my head and mustache last week. Maybe what I have left will stay. Who knows. Still have eyebrows and eyelashes. My facial hair has really thinned. I only have to shave every 3-4 days instead of every day like I'm used to doing.
I guess that's about it. Monday starts another round of chemo that I'm not looking forward to except it's one day closer to recovery.
Again, thanks for all the comments in the blog and your emails and cards. Much appreciated.
Happy Birthday to my daughter Jennifer...25 years old! Where has time gone.

29 November, 2006

3-3 day,
Not much new to report for the last couple days. Figured I'd make a post so at least when someone opens up the blog, my mug isn't the first think they see.
Mustache is still hanging in there...literally!!
David thinks it looks funky and I should just whack it off, but this baby's been on my lip without being shaved off since 1986.
Marjie and David have never seen me without a mustache.
All the black hairs that once graced my lip are gone and just a few straggly gray ones are left....
I'm keepin it for as long as I can!!!!
As far as the bald head, I'm getting used to it. One nice thing is showers. Get to skip a step in there.
That's it for now....More to follow. For all my RM/ET buddies...I'm ZKL as a Pickle.

Dave's Bald Gourd

As you can tell I'm now bald. Picked up a nice POW Dew rag at the Harley Davidson shop yesterday to cover my gourd. I now fit in with my hunting and fishing TIMBUCKTWO buddies JR and Rick. They both have been saying for years that grass doesn't grow on a playground, bald is beautiful and something about making U turns under the sheets or something!!!
But anyway, got up this morning and while showering noticed more and more hair falling out of my head and clogging up the drain so decided to go to the base and get a buzz cut. If I didn't get it cut today, I honestly don't know how much longer I'd be able to hang on to the hair that I had left. It was bugging me knowing that it was just falling out in hunks and I didn't want to look like I was molting so.....whacked it all off. My mustache is barley hanging on and figure I might get another day or so out of it.
I've also been experiencing a sore throat in the evenings for approx. 4-5 days. Starting to get a little concerned. Don't feel like I've got a cold or anything, but it is definitely something I'll discuss with Dr. Debo, the ENT doctor on Friday. I hope it's not something going on with my tonsils????
Other than that, things are going ok. Sense of taste is still AFU...Meat is the major issue and has a metallic taste to it. Potatoes and such also have a funky taste, but vegetables seem to taste ok. I still eat normal and haven't quit eating anything.
I've re-read all pamphlets on the drugs I'm taking and the symptoms you can experience, and two of them talked about hair thinning and loss after the first two to three weeks of chemo. All of the medications recommend drinking plenty of water (6-8 glasses) a day. This is something I've been remiss on, so I'm back to carrying around a water bottle and trying to get plenty of it in me.
Appreciate all the support everyone is giving my with their comments and emails. Keep em' coming. I look forward to reading them each day.