Done with mask for now!

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stayingpositive
stayingpositive Member Posts: 89
in Head and Neck Cancer #1
Well today was my last treatment of radiation for hopefully ever! On to the next step, the long one, chemo for a year (sigh), talking to the onco tommorrow to set up for the treatment. WEll I'll probably feel like crap in about two hours so i'm signin' off till morning and hope I can get a good night sleep although I doubt it, I have to sleep sitting up because of the neck pain.

Trying to stay positive

Bill

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  • ditto1
    ditto1 Member Posts: 660
    #2
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    Half way home
    Hope you got some sleep Bill, glad at least the Rads and that famous MASK I have heard more about than I care to are behind you. You made it this far keep on going my friend, will save my next congrats for next year when the Chemo is behind you. Question, is that your cat in the picture, it looks just like one of ours his name is Romeo, I know we have a lot of Dog lovers on this site and I to love dogs, but we have 2 cats. God Bless
  • Ingrid K
    Ingrid K Member Posts: 813
    #3
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    ditto1 said:

    Half way home
    Hope you got some sleep Bill, glad at least the Rads and that famous MASK I have heard more about than I care to are behind you. You made it this far keep on going my friend, will save my next congrats for next year when the Chemo is behind you. Question, is that your cat in the picture, it looks just like one of ours his name is Romeo, I know we have a lot of Dog lovers on this site and I to love dogs, but we have 2 cats. God Bless

    Bill, congrats on finishing
    Bill, congrats on finishing the rad treatments... that's a HUGE step in this recovery process. I wish you the best in your next phase of treatment. Keep posting so we can all revel in your progress and by all means ask questions as they come up. There are soooo many helpful people on this site and all are so willing to help out.
  • patricke
    patricke Member Posts: 570
    #4
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    RAD FINISH
    Hey Bill, Great news to hear that your trips to the rad dungeon are over, so that is a relief. Hang on, it takes time but life will get better; there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Remember, no matter how bad it gets, as you say, "Stay Positive (easier said than done, I know)," and always remember, "You can do this!"

    PATRICK
  • stayingpositive
    stayingpositive Member Posts: 89
    #5
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    ditto1 said:

    Half way home
    Hope you got some sleep Bill, glad at least the Rads and that famous MASK I have heard more about than I care to are behind you. You made it this far keep on going my friend, will save my next congrats for next year when the Chemo is behind you. Question, is that your cat in the picture, it looks just like one of ours his name is Romeo, I know we have a lot of Dog lovers on this site and I to love dogs, but we have 2 cats. God Bless

    a friends son
    nope, not my kitty, the one in my pic is a friends "son" lol, his animals are his family members. My friend john has 6 cats and 4 dogs and they all live happily together. Ok they have there "spats" but they all do get along, its amazing to see cats eating out of the same food bowl as a dog. He has rescued about 60 percent of the animals from shelters, the pack leader or "alpha" dog was actually a food agressive one, but now he actually lets kittens and cats and smaller dogs eat out of his bowl with him, john does amazing things with animals.
    Anyway the kitty in my photo is one I took of "****" or "me-now"(sounds like what he is saying) the other half (his sister) is "span" she is grey and white with same markings. As kittens they used to clean up thier food dish and make it **** and span clean, hince thier names.
    I dabble in photography, actually maybe you could consider me a "serious amature", guess while i'm on the chemo maybe I could try to take a few pictures. Wish there was a way to post them here, I have some pretty cool ones.

    Still staying positive

    Bill
  • Ingrid K
    Ingrid K Member Posts: 813
    #6
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    stayingpositive said:

    a friends son
    nope, not my kitty, the one in my pic is a friends "son" lol, his animals are his family members. My friend john has 6 cats and 4 dogs and they all live happily together. Ok they have there "spats" but they all do get along, its amazing to see cats eating out of the same food bowl as a dog. He has rescued about 60 percent of the animals from shelters, the pack leader or "alpha" dog was actually a food agressive one, but now he actually lets kittens and cats and smaller dogs eat out of his bowl with him, john does amazing things with animals.
    Anyway the kitty in my photo is one I took of "****" or "me-now"(sounds like what he is saying) the other half (his sister) is "span" she is grey and white with same markings. As kittens they used to clean up thier food dish and make it **** and span clean, hince thier names.
    I dabble in photography, actually maybe you could consider me a "serious amature", guess while i'm on the chemo maybe I could try to take a few pictures. Wish there was a way to post them here, I have some pretty cool ones.

    Still staying positive

    Bill

    posting your pictures
    Bill, there IS a way you can post pictures on here. Go to the top of this page and click on UPDATE YOUR MEMBER "ABOUT ME" PAGE. You can add pictures under "Expressions", then let us know you have pics posted. give it a try.
  • sonyk728
    sonyk728 Member Posts: 124
    #7
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    Congrats on finishing rads!
    Hopefully you slept well and are feeling ok today. I've kept my mask. Don't know why. Stupid thing. I just tossed it in the trash now that I'm thinking about it. Probably held on to it to save $ in case I need it again. Not even sure if I met my rad threshold. Happy Friday!
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #8
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    Congrats....
    What is this "for now" crap.....you're done bro, don't look back or leave any possibilty for return.

    Best,
    John
  • Greend
    Greend Member Posts: 678
    #9
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    mask disposition
    What you going to do with the mask?

    Congrats, I hated the radiation much more than the chemo.

    Denny
  • Pam M
    Pam M Member Posts: 2,196
    #10
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    Great!
    There was something about he notion that I wasn't attacking my body any more that made me happy. Like most, though, I was irritated that I didn't see an immediate improvement in the way I felt (even though I KNEW that was not how things would go). Congrats. Do Well.
  • stayingpositive
    stayingpositive Member Posts: 89
    #11
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    Greend said:

    mask disposition
    What you going to do with the mask?

    Congrats, I hated the radiation much more than the chemo.

    Denny

    Thanks for the responses all!
    Man I love this bar...errrr board. Denny I've got it here at home, was planning on burning the dang thing and filmin' it then placing the show on U Tube or something LOL. But like I was sayin' in another post, I might try to maybe redesign the thing to be not so claustrophobic-ish. I hate poorly designed things, and although this one is not so poorly designed because it definately does hold you still, i'm thinking the designer was not "patient" oriented only customer oriented.
  • stayingpositive
    stayingpositive Member Posts: 89
    #12
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    Pam M said:

    Great!
    There was something about he notion that I wasn't attacking my body any more that made me happy. Like most, though, I was irritated that I didn't see an immediate improvement in the way I felt (even though I KNEW that was not how things would go). Congrats. Do Well.

    Immediate improvement
    Yeah, i'd like to see fast improvement from this dang sore throat, almost crying when I swallow, feels like i'm swallowing crushed up bricks, even ice tea feels that way and tastes like a cat box.... well what I would imagine a cat box would taste like! I'm hoping I get some taste back and would really like a mouth full of spit so I don't have to drink with every bite.

    still staying positive

    Bill
  • jtl
    jtl Member Posts: 456
    #13
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    stayingpositive said:

    Immediate improvement
    Yeah, i'd like to see fast improvement from this dang sore throat, almost crying when I swallow, feels like i'm swallowing crushed up bricks, even ice tea feels that way and tastes like a cat box.... well what I would imagine a cat box would taste like! I'm hoping I get some taste back and would really like a mouth full of spit so I don't have to drink with every bite.

    still staying positive

    Bill

    My sore throat lasted a lot
    My sore throat lasted a lot longer post rads than I was led to believe. It was a month or more of agony, but when it improved it was very fast. It is anyones guess on the saliva and taste. I was lucky and got mine back very fast, in part due to sparing the saliva glands during RT. Congrats on getting this far, it will only get better.
    John
  • stayingpositive
    stayingpositive Member Posts: 89
    #14
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    Ingrid K said:

    posting your pictures
    Bill, there IS a way you can post pictures on here. Go to the top of this page and click on UPDATE YOUR MEMBER "ABOUT ME" PAGE. You can add pictures under "Expressions", then let us know you have pics posted. give it a try.

    Expressions
    Thanks for that tip, i'm now filling up ACS's server with my photo's (ok, so far only five, but I have literally thousands). Is there a limit to how many one can post? I'm keeping them small, but if you see one you would like for a screen desktop send me your email address and i'll send the full size one (just let me know which one it is).

    stay positive

    Bill
  • stayingpositive
    stayingpositive Member Posts: 89
    #15
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    jtl said:

    My sore throat lasted a lot
    My sore throat lasted a lot longer post rads than I was led to believe. It was a month or more of agony, but when it improved it was very fast. It is anyones guess on the saliva and taste. I was lucky and got mine back very fast, in part due to sparing the saliva glands during RT. Congrats on getting this far, it will only get better.
    John

    majical mouthwash
    Well, my onc prescibed me some stuff called "majical mouthwash", has laticane,hydrocodone,malox and one other thing I don't recall at the moment. It says on the warning that it might cause a numb throat (sounds good), but could cause swallowing problems (not good), I literally freak if I cannot swallow. I'm getting better at the not swallowing thing but really don't know if a numb throat would be good vrs not being able to swallow so I haven't taken the medicine yet and will talk to the onc monday when I start chemo.

    still staying positive

    Bill

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