New to the club here..Larynx Cancer.

UPDATE:

Well, Monday will be starting my 3rd week with radiation treatment. Although, I have already been through 2 weeks, I have only had 7 treatments, but I am already starting to feel it in my throat. It is getting hard to swallow. I feel like there is a mini golf ball in my throat on the left side. It hurts to yawn, and even swallow water already. However, it isn't unbearable. If the pain level were to stay like this, it wouldn't be too bad. (I highly doubt that is possible)

I picked up some MM, but I don't know how that's going to help me. The box states not to swallow it, like you can the pure lidocaine. The inside of my mouth is not the issue. At least I will have it on hand.

Ear bothers me off and on. But not too bad.

I have some other weird thing going on with my left elbow with what seems like a nerve when I bend my arm a certain way. If that continues, I'll explain it in a later post. It may have just been a freak thing yesterday.

Mild erythema over neck... I've been diligent with that.

I've been filling out my Christmas cards today. So, if anyone likes to get on those trains and it makes you happy to receive one, PM me your address, and I'll send you one. :) I think it makes people feel cared about when they receive cards, and feel it's a lost art. (penning letters, and cards) It's so much more personal than social media and email!

Take care, each and every one of you!!!

-Steph

Russ,

I don't have a feeding tube. I purposely gained weight prior to treatment to prepare. I have not been ordered to get one. However, If they expect me to maintain THIS weight and I will not be able to go back to my normal comfortable weight, I will not be happy. I wouldn't have gained the weight in the first place. I figure as long as I continue to eat and do not become underweight I should be okay. They should not keep wanting to face feed me. I am not losing weight from this cancer.

I was T1 when it was caught, then they moved it up to T2 right before treatment.

That is correct, most kids these days and a lot of young adults cannot read or write in cursive. I cannot imagine that. I have heard some schools will teach an elective course on it.

I'm not looking forward to the Holidays much. I am for everyone else, though! I'm just not "in the spirit" this year.

Next year!!!

Take care, Russ

Logan,

Thanks for you comments. It wasn't a fun night, but I'm glad the "episode" didn't last too long. I think so far this was the worst middle of the night coughing episode due to the fact I was actually stopped up quite a bit, and usually I haven't been like that. This is going to be a pain in the neck for sure. After what you've said, I think I need to remember to take to multi-vitamin and take it with one Ensure Max Protein for the extra vitamins each day on top of other things I eat.

One other thing that's scaring me is I'm blacking out. My yesterday's are disappearing and I don't think it is drug related. The pain meds I have are Oxycodone HCL 15 MG 1/2 to 1 every 8 hours. I don't take them every day. They don't make me loopy. They do take the edge off for me to eat. I may stop taking them entirely and drink my calories, so I don't have to deal with the constipation.

I'm worried I am actually so tired it's causing it. I can go to sleep very quickly. I actually have to make a small effort to stay awake during the day, and it's a bit of an effort to keep living like my life is like it was before I was getting radiation.

I'm sorry to talk so much. I really need to keep eye on on what's going on with me and write down notes to share for others until my end with this.

I literally asked a radiation tech today how long of a life I have left today (people like me anyway) I've been pretty down the last couple days. He was one I have only seen a couple times, and was the only person left in the room. He told me they are treating me to cure me. That's the treatment plan. They are covering my whole neck and nodes, plus my vocal cords, and malignant neoplasm. (that sound nicer than "tumor") But I believe I didn't go into this seeking radiation for palliative care. I would gives this is what the usual regime would be for this considering I didn't have surgery.

Logan, I know I have read you story, and you touched on this. So I'll check out why they can't do some surgery to clear some scare tissue, then stretch your esophagus, so you can eat again. I'm off to go do that again.

Have a good night!

My Bestest,

Steph

After Friday only 10 more days to go.

Good morning Swim,

Wow, I'm all the way across the country on the East Coast across the country from ya! Thanks for the tips you have. It seems most people bought the Vitamix, but I didn't want one due to their size. I bought the Ninja as well because it's smaller. I thought a Vitamix would be overkill.

Regarding your tips on chemo, luckily, I did not have to have that. But maybe they will help someone else. Just radiation here. I was T1N0M0 when they first found it but due to delays (which weren't too long) I was upped to T2N0M0 before treatment, so I was close to T2. Due to location on my left vocal cord, they try radiation before surgery due the most minimal amount of damage to your voice... I didn't have the time to fly around and see doctors about laser, but I read about a few hospitals that performed it on T1-2 malignant HPV tumors. However, I did get a 2nd opinion - the ENT at a hospital a couple hours away didn't think laser was a good idea in my situation and radiation was better to try first.

Yes, was a smoker here. Drank as well, but more socially, it was not my H2O. I did quit smoking around the same time you did. A couple years later. I started vaping to quit. So, it's hard for me to date when I quit cigarettes. So, it's been probably 10 years for me. The only thing I can figure may be one of those 2 items could wake up HPV by decreasing our immune system as that would usually keep it at bay. We are both exercisers. So, you think that would have helped counter the bad stuff... However, I was also going through menopause. I've read that woman tend to have an HPV recurrence around that time, so that may have been a part of it with me. Heck, we just don't know. All we do know is to live as healthy as possible and keep our immune system as happy as possible so it will help keep it from coming back! We know drinking and smoking are not good for the immune system, and exercise, Spinach and Salmon are! 

I did the same thing you did and gained weight before the radiation. I've lost 10 pounds which was inevitable. I wasn’t at my normal weight. Considering, I gained the weight quickly, it was probably a lot of water retention. I can still lose a few more pounds before I'm in trouble, so I think I gained as much as I could in a month, I surely was not comfortable in my skin. I'm still eating solids, which is insane. I have had a difference in taste, but not as bad as most people describe.  However, there must be a difference between people that have the cancer down in the lower part of their throat (me) and the back of the top of their throat (you) Where yours is very close to your mouth and closer to your nose than mine. On top of that you’ve been taking chemo, and that is a double whammy. There are a lot of positive stories on here and I can’t recall reading one where a person never got their taste back.  

Yesterday I saw my Oncologist. I see him every Wednesday. They were worried about my neck. They are treating the tumor with high level radiation, and the rest of my neck with moderate levels. So, the burn is getting bad, and thinking about the skin on my neck and 11 more days to go after today = not fun. My Oncologist wants me to stop putting anything on my neck at all. I usually take a shower every day right before I leave to go in, maybe I should stop doing that and allow my skin at least a few hours after the shower. I believe he thinks I have sensitive skin and it's starting to react to the ingredients in things now that it's even more sensitive. Heck if I know when he then later said it was OK to use some sample cream the nurse gave me. LOL

Anyway, that's where I am right now, other than the coughing at night that wakes me up. However, I got more sleep last night. My throat was being kind to me, or I was just too exhausted for it to even wake me up. Other than that, I'm good! My neck may feel better after a couple days of rest this weekend.

Thanks for your other cool suggestions as well! I’ve been wanting to check out meditation for years, but I’ve never really known where to begin with it. Then I’ll get off track and forget about it.

You sound like you are in pretty good spirits and you are further along than I am, but I'll tell you I honestly thought I would be worse off right now than I am. Keep drinking your shakes. Your recipe is a good one, and will keep you healthy. Watch out for dairy if your saliva starts to get thick, and utilize the tips for dry mouth if you get that. I've not used fluoride trays, but I did get some fluoride paste. I got Mipaste from my dentist, and I just put it on my finger and rub it on my teeth (you may like this stuff, a lot more versatile) and I have a prescription mouthwash called CTX4 - I also bought a new Sonicare that has a water pic built in before this all started. I've got some other items I haven't needed to use yet.

There's your novel!

Take Care!

-Steph