4 weeks since completion - Dr's Appt

Well here it is 4 weeks since the end of treatment and Marjie and I just got back from seeing Dr. Sinesi (radiation oncologist) and Dr. Atienza (oncologist). I saw Dr. Debo (ENT) last Monday and all are saying things are looking good.

Here is how I feel - my skin is completely healed although I am not growing any hair on two spots on the back of my head between my ears and my collarbone, my entire neck region and jaw, and I may never have the hair grow back there especially on the left side of my neck. Here is the medical explanation for it all. The chemo drugs I initially got (cisplatin, taxotere, and 5FU) attacked the fast growing cells throughout my entire body. Thus my hair cells were affected and I lost my hair, it fell out and stopped growing all over my body while the drugs were in my body. Now that it has been over 4 weeks since I last had them, my hair is growing back, everywhere except in the radiation field of my treatment. The radiation actually damages the hair follicles, and the higher radiation areas the more damage. So only time will tell if hair will grow back on my jaw. My mustache is pitiful, although I am reluctant to shave it off - it might not grow back.

The inside of my mouth and throat are much better, pink, supple, no scarring. My throat is almost pain free. It is this spit issue that I am having the hardest time with. It is still extremely thick and snot-like. And this is one that I am going to have to deal with for a while. The lack of normal saliva also effects my sense of taste - which completely sucks as it has been over 7 weeks since I ate something. Marjie's birthday meal was probably the last time I actually ate anything of substance, and even then things were starting to go haywire with my taste. Unfortunately saliva glands are the first to be affected by the radiation and the last (if at all) to heal. So there is really no idea when my sense of taste will come back and that just makes eating all that more difficult. Dr. Sinesi and Dr. Atienza reinforced the need to keep putting water or liquid in my mouth to help with the dry mouth and thick spit, as well as to start out with liquid or pudding consistency foods. I still have the feeding tube in, and up to 4 cans of ENSURE plus a day, I am so ready to eat, dreaming about food, but nothing tastes good or has been difficult to get down. So far - only water, Gatorade, and the saligen pill. I tried lemonade the other day and it just burned my mouth and throat (will let things heal a little more before trying again). I tried applesauce yesterday morning, and besides not tasting right, I had a hard time getting it down. I actually swallowed a vitamin pill this afternoon - it was difficult, but I got it down. Marjie has been offering to make anything just to get me to try to eat, eventually I'll let her experiment away to figure out what I can taste and swallow, but just not right now.

Today was my last appointment with Dr. Sinesi, he has basically turned all my follow on care over to Dr. Debo. If I need anything from him he said that he is more than happy to see me, and will continue to track my progress through Dr. Debo's reports. Pretty much the rest of my care has been turned back over to Dr. Debo (ENT), to ensure things continue to look good - I'll do a PET or CAT scan before the end of the month, and then see Dr. Debo regularly for the next 5 years.

That's all for now...I can see this blog start to wind down. I'll update it in a couple weeks. Thanks again for all your support!

Dave