Surgery, radiotherapy and a marathon

Makiavel11

It’s been one year and three months since my last radiotherapy treatment, and yesterday I ran my first marathon.

PART 1

Hi, my name is Simon. I’m 47 and was diagnosed with pT2N1 ORL cancer.

I received the news on the 28th of February 2022. It was a sunny day. I was on my way to the bookstore with one of my daughters to buy a Harry Potter book. I just had to make a stop to see my ORL and get the result of my biopsy. I didn’t have a care in the world since everybody said it was nothing to worry about. And by everybody, I mean two GPs, my dentist, and even the ORL.

I wish it were the 29th of February so I could only have to relive that day every four years.

So, it was cancer of the left cheek mucosa, but it didn’t look that bad. Cells were well-differentiated, and it was small. The ORL told me that I may need surgery and/or radiotherapy. I went home to announce the bad news to my wife and eventually to my kids. As you all know, that was one of the hardest parts.

My daughter didn’t get her Harry Potter book.

They transferred my case to the CHUM in Montreal. Waiting for my appointment date, I had to cope with my anxiety. By coping, I mean reading everything I could on the subject. When I met the team, I was well prepared and knew almost everything that was going to happen. They would remove the tumor and reconstruct the inner cheek with a flap of skin from my wrist. That flap of skin would be replaced with a sheet of skin from my leg. They told me that the worst pain would come from that skin graft. They would also remove lymph nodes from that side of my neck. Again, everyone was optimistic. We caught it early, and the chances I would need radiotherapy were slim to none. Since it was an 8-hour surgery, there was a possibility of a tracheotomy if the swelling was too bad. All in all, I felt fine and in good hands.

Fun fact, if you have hairs on your wrist, you will have hair in your mouth.

The surgery went well, and they didn’t have to perform the tracheotomy. The first 24 hours after the surgery were fuzzy since I was pumped full of drugs. The plan was for my wife to stay with me during the day and go back home for the night. On the second day, we had to change that plan. Our oldest got COVID, so my wife had to stay home and was prohibited from coming to the hospital. She was sad, but I reassured her that I was feeling better and reminded her that she had already done so much. Staying by my side when I was the grumpiest patient on the floor was no small feat. She later told me that when she heard me complain about some of the staff who weren’t as professional as others, she knew I was okay.

I'm a big fan of metal music so I couldn't help and take a pic

Was the surgery painful? It was more uncomfortable than painful. The worst pain I had was…in my nose. I discovered that I have a severe deviated nasal septum, and the feeding tube in my nostril put a lot of pressure on it. That was painful, waking me up at night. I asked to change the tube to my other nostril, the one that was normal. They said yes, but they needed to insert it in place BEFORE removing the painful one. They didn’t want to take the chance of removing it and being unable to put a new one in place after. Did I mention that I had a dry mouth and wasn’t allowed to put anything in my mouth, including water?

I couldn’t swallow the new tube, but there were a lot of retching.

Eventually, they found a spray to numb my nose.

I spent most of my time watching The Office, reading, playing games on my phone, and keeping a tight schedule on my medication, writing down when I had my last dose and setting alarms not to miss the next one. They told me that I didn’t have to be in pain to heal and recuperate, and I made sure I kept that pain at bay.

I stayed a bit longer than planned because I had the bad habit of “chewing” on the graft when I slept. Eventually they gave me my leave from the hospital, but I had to keep my feeding tube.

I was so happy to go back home, the car ride was a joy for me, it was something else for my wife. Imagine not brushing your teeth for almost a month. There was a smell, the windows were down the whole trip.

And then I was home, with my kids, my pets, and my bed! But a surprise was waiting for me. I had spent so much time in a sanitized environment that I wasn’t ready to tackle a house full of allergens. I had the worst allergic reaction, itchy and teary eyes, and a... rhinitis. I thought my nose was hurting before; I was wrong. I didn’t sleep well that night.

The next day, things were better. I had fewer allergic symptoms and was able to take a restful nap on the couch in the afternoon. My youngest woke me up when she got back from school. She looked at me and asked why there was a black line on my tube. I went into the bathroom to check. The black line was used for measurement, it was supposed to be inside my nose, and now it was a good eight inches out of it. The stitches had broken, and the tube had slipped out when I was asleep. I had to go back to the hospital to remove it and replace it. But there was a silver lining to this ordeal. They put the new feeding tube in the good nostril, no more pain there! Everything went well after that. I had to watch my family eat ham and mashed potatoes during Easter while I was pushing TwoCal juice with a syringe into my stomach, but it wasn’t that bad.

Eventually, they removed the feeding tube. Once back home, I nearly sprinted to the bathroom to brush my teeth. No one warned me that my gums were a bit sensitive, so when I went in there my electric toothbrush, it turned into a bloody mess. But after that it felt good to be able to drink and eat again.

The next appointment was schedule with my surgeon to get the result of the analysis of my tumor and see if I needed radiotherapy. But they said I was young, healthy, and we caught it early, so why should I be worried?

In PART 2 I'll tell you about my radiotherapy treatment and how I gain weight instead of losing weight.

Here I am at the starting line of the Montreal Marathon.