week 4 and 3 to go

susanc1
susanc1 Member Posts: 24
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

Hubby started this journey by saying, "I have to start in order to finish." He has finished week 4 and is surprisingly good. He does have a lot of mucous and dry mouth at night that has him up a few times, and naturally he is increasingly tired. He reports throat pain, but is only taking acetimetaphin right now. He has a routine for rinsing, swishing and so on and he has started on softer foods (overcooked noodles, supersoft eggs, room temperature cheesecake) and the instant breakfast drinks (carnation and Kellogs....he is not fond of boost). We went to a nutrition luncheon at the cancer clinic last week and we were told that raw papaya (used as a meat tenderizer in some places)  helps with the mucous so he tried it and says that it does work, although it doesn't get rid of it. He is using magic mouthwash before he eats. WHile he does have pain, he states that he is around a 5 on the 1-10 scale and he has not started taking any narcotics...yet.

We find things to do to get out of the house, because focusing on other things means he is not focusing on his pain as much. When he gets tired, we come home and spend the rest of the day in PJ's. Napping is more common. We have a local Chinese restaurant that we go to regularly and Angel, the owner, has made him chicken soup with noodles and finely chopped chicken and veggies. The next order probably won't have the veggies though.

And we have the bag nicknamed the "diaperbag" which goes everywhere with us. It has his swish, magic mouthwash, a couple breakfast drinks, acetemetaphine, lemon drops, wipes, and extra tea. Yesterday he had a mocha frappacno from Starbucks. He liked that one, and liked it better when the ice melted.....and it racked him about 500 calories. So far he has not had weight loss. At the end of week 3, he said, "If I can just get through week four..." and he got through week 4 with some discomfort but nothing he could not manage. So now he is saying, "If I can get through week 5....." He is checking on a script for the Nutrasol and did ask his military doc for something a littel stronger than an OTC med, but not as strong as Percocet (leftover from the tonsil surgery).

And the little ray of sushine......last night one of the grandtriplets came over to play in the pool. She came up to him and very seriously asked, "Big Pop...on a scale of 1-10, where are you?" Lots of love :)

s

 

Comments

  • CivilMatt
    CivilMatt Member Posts: 4,724 Member
    #2
    4 going on 5

    Susan,

    Very good attitude, very good indeed.

    Keep drinking water and swallowing.  Using the facilities at all hours is a given.  Very little about this trip is pre-cancer normal.  You just do it and keep doing it.  Nutrition and hydration are your friends and should be welcome.

    His routine and activity level seems destined for success, keep it up.

    Matt

  • susanc1
    susanc1 Member Posts: 24
    edited August 2016 #3
    CivilMatt said:

    4 going on 5

    Susan,

    Very good attitude, very good indeed.

    Keep drinking water and swallowing.  Using the facilities at all hours is a given.  Very little about this trip is pre-cancer normal.  You just do it and keep doing it.  Nutrition and hydration are your friends and should be welcome.

    His routine and activity level seems destined for success, keep it up.

    Matt

    :)

    Matt

     

    THanks for all your feedback and support. We are both mental health therapists and these are things we teach our clients to do and generally practice ourselves. He is generally an optimisitc person anyway so that helps. Still he is not quite who he was and is hurts me to seehim go through this. But I do appreciate the support you have given.

    s

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