Better and better

Just wanted everyone to know that I'm getting better and better each day. Was getting kind of bummed out lately because it seemed that it was taking so long for me to get back to normal, but it seems things are taking a toll for the better.
I'm now able to to eat 80% of my food and for the last two days have only used the feeding tube a couple times. Food doesn't taste and go down perfectly, but boy oh boy things are starting to taste like they should and I have the notion to try to get back to 100% down the gullet and get rid of this tube. Today is Saturday and all food has been in the mouth with nothing down the tube.

We had some really nice weather the last couple days and since I'm feeling more and more like normal, Marjie and I decided to take the boat out to the Chesapeake Bay and do a little flounder fishing. Went out Friday and caught a few fish and ended up taking home one legal flounder. Had such a good time on the boat, breathing salt air again, and bobbing up and down that we decided to get up early and spend Saturday doing the same thing. I felt so good, I decided to have a couple beers.

Things are going so good that were hoping I can continue to eat food normally and if so, call the doctor and get the feeding tube removed in a week or so.

Only thing that is an issue right now is the fact that the ringing in the ears has gotten a little worse. I've had the ringing in the ears ever since they started me on the Chemo called Cisplatin. In fact the doctor stopped the last dose because he was concerned that it could cause further damage. Anyway, during the radiation, I was given 7 doses of Carboplatin, which also causes some ringing in the ears. I didn't complain about it because I know I needed the drugs to rid myself of the Cancer, but anyway, about a week or so ago the ringing in the ears got worse. Actually, it got worse in my left ear. I kept complaining about it and every day it seemed to get worse and worse. I'm also noticing a loss of hearing in that ear.
I called the ENT doctor last week and made an appointment. Dr. Debo (ENT) cleaned out some wax and gave me hearing test which proved that since December (my last hearing test), I have a significant loss of hearing in the left ear. He said that he thinks I might have Eustation Tube Dysfunction which might be caused by the chemo drugs I was taking. What concerns him is that it is only in the left ear and not both.
He prescriobed be a weeks worth of Prednisone, which is a synthetic corticosteroid drug, and then has me set up to have a MRI next week to check and see if there is any nerve damage. More to follow on that.

A Major Milestone

It's been a week or so since I updated the blog so figured I'd better since there was a milestone hit yesterday. I finally ate some food. Sunday afternoon I decided I'd try a scrambled egg. Marjie cooked one and seasoned it with a little salt/pepper/garlic mix. Ate about half before the garlic screwed up my tasted buds, but at least got some real food down the gullet. Monday morning I got up and scrambled another egg this time just seasoning it with salt. It went down much better and figured hey, this food deal might be finally working. Microwaved a burrito for lunch and ate half of it, then for dinner cooked up a little pasta with sauce. The spaghetti went down much better than the burrito.
Today, I woke up and had a craving for pancakes...cooked two of them and smothered them in maple syrup. These didn't taste so good, but forced myself to eat half of them. Later in the day while driving around, I stopped at Taco Bell and ordered a burrito. That was nasty...took a few bites and had to throw it away. For dinner tonight, I tried a small bowl of Corn Flakes....it was kind of so so...ate about 8 bites and trashed that. First few bites of food seem to taste ok, but after that it goes to hell in a hand basket. Had 5 bites of pork chop and 3 bites of broccoli with cheese sauce before I gave up for the day. I'm still using the Ensure, but at least I'm getting a little bit of real food down.
Hopefully in a week or so I'll be doing better with the food.

The ringing in ears has gotten worse in the past few days. It's kind of been an off and on again thing for the past few months. I'm also experiencing some pressure in my left ear and have noticed a significant loss of hearing in that ear. The ringing is getting worse and worse and the sound keeps changing. Every time I burp, cough or yawn my left ear pops. Not sure what's going on, but I made an appointment with Dr. Debo tomorrow and hopefully he'll be able to figure something out.


That's about it for now, just trying to get back normal and get on with it.