Week Six

As a refresher, my weight at the end of Week Five was 138.4 lbs.

 

‘The Scream’ by Edvard Munch, as interpreted by C. Gray

 

 

That about captures what Week Six was like…the throat got a lot more sore, smoothies too tough to swallow, likewise soups.  About the only food I could swallow without too much pain were the eggs, and very small bites of ice cream.

The doctors all encouraged me to use the meds I have to ease the pain.  Through most of Week Five, I relied on various combinations of the med marj from our favorite dispensary.  The 20 to 1 CBD to THC tincture seemed to provide some relief, and the THC honey sticks in tea mellowed me out.  But by the end of the week, it was time to dip into the morphine to really cut the pain.

Pre-esophageal cancer  meds (two supplements and Tamosulin)

 

On the far left (naturally) are the med marj remedies:  the eye-dropper 20 to 1 tincture, the honey sticks, and the CBD/THC-infused coconut oil. Each morning I take the antacid concoction, Nexium, a packet of powder that I add water to for a soft gel to swallow.  Then there are two mouth washes, one that numbs the throat, and the other that coats it.  I have been taking them practically daily.  It makes what little eating I do a bit easier, and it certainly facilitates swallowing any pills that I can’t crush to take through the stomach peg (again, thank goodness for the  stomach peg).

There are three pills I take on the day of  chemo, and two more on the each of the next two days.  Then there is an empty bottle of antibiotics I was taking for the infected ‘button’ for the stomach peg.

And then, two different nausea pills have been provided.  I don’t know how they differ, but the one I’ve been taking has cut down on the nausea feeling, so I haven’t experimented with the other.  I have two bottles of morphine, and by week’s end I started taking the full 5 ml dosage.  Now the tricky part is balancing the constipation of the morphine with the stool-softening effect of the Colace medication.

So I have my meds, and the rest of my daily diet is shown below.  That is, eight cans of Osmolite and two eggs.

 

 

We saw the radiation oncologist on Monday, and told her of the increased swallowing difficulty.  She was not surprised, and told me that I should  expect it to get even worse during the week after the last radiation.  “Oh, swell,” I said.  But the good news is that it starts to get better after that.  Hurray.  She also said that the last three days of radiation will be a smaller, more concentrated ‘boost’ that targets the tumor with just a small margin beyond it.

I asked her what happens to the cancer cells when they are killed by the radiation.  She said there are ‘garbage collectors’ in our body that scurry around out of the blood system and gobble up/reconstitute the dead cells into a useful inventory of parts to be used by the body for good things.  Isn’t that amazing?!?!

We will follow up with her in two weeks, and will have a scan in probably three or four weeks.  We meet with the thoracic surgeon on August 8th, presumably for a planning session.

We had a very nice send off at the Chemo infusion center on Wednesday.  When they unplugged me from my LAST chemo drip bag, all the staff gathered around us and presented me with a ‘Certificate of Completion’ signed by everyone, and presented Carol with a carrot cake (part of which we will freeze, for my later eating enjoyment).

Then, as we left, I got to ring the brass bell to announce the end of my chemo.

We also saw the chemo doctor that day, and even though I was complaining about the pain, she said I was doing remarkably well.  She said some folks are in the hospital on a morphine drip at this stage.  So all that encouragement pumped me up.  And she will be the primary doctor that  I’ll be following up with after surgery.  I’m thankful for that, as she is a very ‘positive’ doctor.

 

On Thursday night I had the best sleep I’ve had  in many moons.  Our massage therapist brought her massage table to the house about 5 pm and proceeded to give me a super-relaxing massage.  Went to bed right after, and slept like a rock….only woke up once to tend to the cats about 2 am.

 

Then Friday was the last radiation treatment.  Yahoo.  All done now except for the recovery and surgery down the road, presumably in a few weeks.  Took a couple pictures of the nice folks at the Sacto radiation center.

 

 

I must say, my care has been very, very good.  The doctors at Woodland and Sacramento Dignity Health are excellent, as are the staff at the chemo infusion center in Woodland and the radiation center in Sacramento.  We’ve had home health nurses come by also, as well as visits to the wound nurse and the ER.  Everyone has been friendly, professional, positive, and skilled.

 

ON ANOTHER NOTE:  We got the spectacular news at the beginning of Week Six that we are going to be grandparents (for the first time)!!!

YES! Scott and Heidi called on Monday to say that Heidi is expecting in early April.  Yahoo.  Very exciting news.  And I should be pretty chipper by then, by golly.

 

So, that’s about it for Week Six.  The next blog will be in a week and I’ll let you know how ‘recovery’ is proceeding.

My weight on Friday of Week Six was 139.7 lbs.