Getting back to "normal" after treatment

christy, i'm sorry ur hubby is having such a rough time.  3 weeks is not long to b out of tx.  unfortunatey, it usually takes 2 - 3 months to see some real improvement.  at least thats what it was for me.  ur hubby will probably take a little longer since he had that serious illness w/his lungs.  i hate to say it b/c hes been thru so much, but he will have to b a little patient and give himself some time to heal.  i will b praying for both of you.

God bless,

dj

Rarph is a guy who is in his late seventies.  He posted a lot on the board almost two years ago, very ill, weight down to 112, sounded like he wanted to die.  Lots of posts, lots of extremely unpleasant times.  He went off the board for months and months,  I thought he maybe had died.  Rarph posted here a handful of months ago, about how well he was doing.  About the fact he could eat again, and had back some saliva-- one year after treatment.  About how great life was and how much he was enjoying just doing family things.  Rarph made  it.   You guys will too.  It can be really dark for quite awhile, but each day is aother step toward better.

best to you

Pat

Hi Christy,

Remember, he's still "cooking" from treatment. This period, the first few weeks after treatment ends, is as bad or worse than the last few weeks of treatment. I got my PEG the last day of treatment, literally two hours after my last treatment. 

Everyone is different but give it a month to 6 weeks before you'll start to see some improvement. Realistically it will be 3 months to 6 months to see some noticable improvement.

I'm going on 6 months post treatment and I'm just truly beginning to feel better. I never lost my taste but eating and swallowing has been a challenge for some time. I can eat pretty much everything now but need lot's of water to swallow. Saliva is about 70% . His taste and saliva could be up to a year or more before he knows what will be normal. 

Patience is key. Keep doing the swallowing exercises!

Positive thoughts and prayers.

"T"

But it takes a while

I was SCC, BOT stage IVa and had the whole spectrum, induction chemo, 33 rads with weekly erbitux and at three weeks post I felt awful.  Lots of pain, choking mucus, difficulting swallowing anything let alone food.  The one 'bright' spot was that I'd had the PEG tube inserted before rads started so I could get some nourishment and fluids.  I tried to do food by mouth, about the only thing that worked was warm whole milk, maybe some jello or soup.  I wasn't until about 2 months after rads ended that I could do soft foods, but even then it was a challenge, I didn't want to eat, taste was so faint that food was disgusting (it's amazing how something you like can seem so bad when there is so little taste).  It was about 14 weeks after rads that I was able to start eating regular, solid food and that was an exercise in balancing sips of water and bites of food.  The good thing was that once I started eating regular food it was just a couple of weeks and I was able to lose the PEG and get closer to normal.

Oh, and I too had a post rads blood clot, not as severe as your husbands, my port caused a clot in my right jugular and I too was on lovenox, though for not as long.  It was decidely creepy to stick myself in the stomach with that twice daily shot. 

The point of this rambling response mirrors what my fellow survivors have already posted - it takes time.  Much more time than recovering from a sunburn or even a fractured bone. 

I'm 15 months out of rads and am almost back to normal.  Saliva keeps slowly (and I do mean SLOWLY) improving, I'd estimate that it is about 60% of what it was.  Taste is back with sour being the only one that is tough to do. I also need to be careful in the sun, lots of sunblock on the skin between the top of my ears and collarbone and the wide brimmed hat, but I'll live with it.

As a good friend of my says  "leaves, not roots".

Here's hoping that hubby is soon feeling better, just remember that it is a slow process.