How's Letumwork doing?

letumwork said:

Hanging in there
Thanks for the concern and support- I had my second dose of Chemo last Wednesday and it hit me hard on Friday. Fought the Nausea all weekend and part of Monday and Tuesday. I feel a little better now but it's tough to get in the calories when everything that hits the stomach triggers the blah feeling. So far I've had 21 of 35 radiation treatments and 2 out of 3 of the concurrent Cisplatin treatments. The symptoms vary day by day and I would be happy to answer any specific questions related to my treatment if it would be helpful to others .Some good news is the Tumor in my Nasopharynx has shrunk substantially and my swollen neck nodes can no longer be felt so the treatment is working. They are adjusting the radiation plan to account for the smaller tumor. Right now I'm taking it one day at a time and am thankful that I've been able to tough it out so far and am thankful for all of the support I'm getting from Family, friends and people I don't even know on this excellent website. I'm sure I will be back here for advice as the battle continues and grows more difficult.

Letumwork

Your respose to chemo is about what mine was.  For awhile, I couldn't really eat at all.  When I got over the nausea I pushed calories as hard as I could.  I actually ate a cheescake per day for a period of about six weeks, thereby gaining ten lbs before I got into radiation.  It came in pretty helpful later.  The tumor response is very positive.  It goes a long way to predict the ultimate success of your treatment.

Pat

THANK YOU, Helen, for asking about letumwork!  I've been ITCHING to post but wanted to wait until his next one, and here it is today!  I'm the "caregiver", and have gained so much from everyone posting on this site - alternately exhilarating and terrifying me with all the information!  As the not so computer literate one in the family, I haven't been able to find the caregivers site for Head and Neck Cancer, but I've gotten an awful lot to help me from this site, and I pray for each one of you every single day.  Phrannie, you are my hero, I want letumwork to come through as strongly as you have - you are who I want to be when I grow up!  Okay, I've said my piece, see, sweetie, I didn't talk too much, just like I promised!  Everyone have a blessed day, praying for clean scans, NED, and slick saliva for all of you!

HelenBack said:

Caregivers are here!

As far as I know, this is the caregivers site! It seems that there are almost as many caregivers here as care-receivers, myself included. Glad to hear Letumwork is doing pretty darned well. 

My husband has had his 11th radiation today--1/3 done.Yay!--and is doing very well. Losing some tase, getting some mouth sores but otherwise fine. I know round 2 of Cisplatin will likely bring a wave of yuk with it. I'm stuffing him with all kinds of high calorie, high protein foods to prepare.

And I wholeheartedly agree that Phrannie is an amazing woman. Really, really. All these wonderful people inspire me so much!

Carry on,

Helen

I knew there were caregivers here, but most of the posts seem like they're from the warriors, the caregiver posts aren't as specific...your husbands symptoms sound very familiar, and I scramble to try to find things that John will be able to swallow down...lots of good information here for that, though.  Muscle milk has lots of protein, and I was told that men seem to prefer it over women preferring it, not sure why?  Also today I bought some EAS Myoplex for him to try, which has 42 grams of protein, 300 calories, in a 17 oz size container, I'm hoping he'll like either one of those.  Prayers for your husband's continued success with his treatments, and minimal nausea with his second chemo round, too.

letumwork said:

Hanging in there
Thanks for the concern and support- I had my second dose of Chemo last Wednesday and it hit me hard on Friday. Fought the Nausea all weekend and part of Monday and Tuesday. I feel a little better now but it's tough to get in the calories when everything that hits the stomach triggers the blah feeling. So far I've had 21 of 35 radiation treatments and 2 out of 3 of the concurrent Cisplatin treatments. The symptoms vary day by day and I would be happy to answer any specific questions related to my treatment if it would be helpful to others .Some good news is the Tumor in my Nasopharynx has shrunk substantially and my swollen neck nodes can no longer be felt so the treatment is working. They are adjusting the radiation plan to account for the smaller tumor. Right now I'm taking it one day at a time and am thankful that I've been able to tough it out so far and am thankful for all of the support I'm getting from Family, friends and people I don't even know on this excellent website. I'm sure I will be back here for advice as the battle continues and grows more difficult.

Letumwork

hanging tough, and doing pretty darn good.  Being nauseated for a few days after chemo is to be expected, and isn't it a relief when things turn around again, and you don't have to wonder which way things are going to go....up or down....for a couple of weeks. 

I remember when I realized my nodes were gone from the rads....for me, that was such a great feeling...to have visable proof that treatment is working.  When they adjust the rad thing, it's called a "boost"....I don't know exactly what that means, exept that they start targeting the tumor hard.  I do remember it took less time.....maybe 3 or 4 minutes per session, which even that small amount was great to me!  You're almost at the single digit stage, and that means COUNT DOWN time!!!  Whoo hoo!

Firemansflame, you make me blush ....but thank you for wanting to grow up like (if you only knew what you were saying....LOL)....This is just as much a caregiver's site as a patient's site.....Us patients have WAY much appreciation, graditude, and awe of the caregivers....and that's a fact.

p

HelenBack said:

high calorie smoothie

Just want to tell you about a smoothie that I make for my husband. It packs a whopping 1350 calories and so far he enjoys it. Today he seems to need magic mouthwash to get it down because the greenish bananas I had on hand this morning stung a little. It's best to use very ripe bananas.

It's kind of huge but even divided in half it packs a nutrtional punch!

2 small or 1 1/2 larger bananas (ripe is better, sweeter, thinner when blended)

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

3 scoops protein powder (i use organic grass-fed whey, unflavored)

2 tablespoons flax meal

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 1/2 cups ice

1350 calories, 80 grams protein

it makes a quart, which is quite large but for some reason he is able to get it down. today he used the miracle mouthwash for the first time to numb his throat a little. But it is a huge releif when he gets that thing down in the morning, takes some pressure off. Jon doesn't have a feeding tube or any weight to lose so I feel desperate about keeping his weight up.

 

When you want it all in one, give this a go.

http://www.optimumnutrition.com/products/serious-mass-p-241.html

firemansflame said:

All in one

Wow, Don, that stuff isn't messing around, is it?  I'll have to check that out, too, I'm all about keeping it simple!  Thank you for the information.

How long til the nodes shrink? Robs neck is more swollen and hard since he started the rads.

Sandy