Day 16 The Start Of Week Four / May 22,2017
Today I had my fourth chemo treatment. That is number four out of seven so I have officially crossed over into the second half of my treatment. It may be a small milestone, but it feels so good to know that I have gone this far and only have three more of these to be done.
Now for the rest of my day. I went to radiation treatment and handled it like a boss. I wasn't stressed out and the dry mouth did not bother me much at all. That is my goal for the rest of my week.
After getting cooked in radiation I had my weekly visit with the radiation doctor. When I weighed in I found out that I had lost 15 pounds over the last two weeks. He was not very happy and said that once I lose 18 pounds we will probably be putting a feeding tube in me. He explained that I will be in a catabolic state and my body will stat eating itself for energy. This will not only take a toll on my muscle mass, but will make my recovery from radiation and chemotherapy harder because my body will be too weak to bounce back. Kim looked at me with that "I told you look" and explained to the doctor her last few days.
As I said before, food is my nemesis. I hate the way food tastes and the consistency is just to hard to eat. Kim has been trying to get me on a liquid diet most of last week, but I didn't want to cave in to not eating any solids. After every meal Kim would add up the calories and I was getting about 300 calories a day. For a patient on chemo and radiation it is recommended they get in 2200 to 2400 calories a day just to maintain their weight and health.
On Saturday, I finally gave in and let her start making me some high calorie shakes and drinks. I was able to get in between 1100 and 1300 calories on both days. She is using high calorie boost, ice cream, fruit, whole milk and Carnation breakfast packets. This was a good start, it is just hard to put such rich food on your stomach when you are used to not eating.
We had fought most of the week about my not eating, and over the weekend I got several "Mommy Lectures" from her. She kept telling me her job was to manage my food and my pain, my job was to get through this and eat. I agreed with her, it was just hard to start packing in all these calories.
After talking with the doctor and his nurse, he told me to make eating a priority. He reminded me that Kim was on the right track and doing everything she was supposed to be doing. We then made a pact. I have to report to his office next Tuesday. If I have not added any weight or at a minimum maintained the weight I have, he is setting me up with a surgical consult the following Thursday to put in a feeding tube. This gives me one week to down as many of these high calories shakes in as I can.
Now the good news. After my consult I headed over the chemotherapy. While I was waiting to be called back I started talking to another head and neck cancer patient. I had met him last week, and he is two days behind me in treatment. As we talked he was telling me the his throat was so sore he could hardly drink. The mucous that was getting so thick in his throat that it gagged him at times and he would have to get up several times at night to rinse.
As I listened to him I realized that my prayers and the prayers of those around me have been heard and answered. I do know I will suffer these same side effects but it is such a blessing they have not started yet. The longer it takes for these to get unmanageable, the shorter amount of time I will deal with them. I keep doing mouth rinses, washes, sinus rinses and floride treatments to help thwart off the side effects. Hopefully I can get at least two more weeks under my belt before they start.
Please continue to pray for my side effects to be manageable or even light, and for today's chemo to get out of my system quickly so that I can handle the food that I have to start putting down every day this week.
Now for the rest of my day. I went to radiation treatment and handled it like a boss. I wasn't stressed out and the dry mouth did not bother me much at all. That is my goal for the rest of my week.
After getting cooked in radiation I had my weekly visit with the radiation doctor. When I weighed in I found out that I had lost 15 pounds over the last two weeks. He was not very happy and said that once I lose 18 pounds we will probably be putting a feeding tube in me. He explained that I will be in a catabolic state and my body will stat eating itself for energy. This will not only take a toll on my muscle mass, but will make my recovery from radiation and chemotherapy harder because my body will be too weak to bounce back. Kim looked at me with that "I told you look" and explained to the doctor her last few days.
As I said before, food is my nemesis. I hate the way food tastes and the consistency is just to hard to eat. Kim has been trying to get me on a liquid diet most of last week, but I didn't want to cave in to not eating any solids. After every meal Kim would add up the calories and I was getting about 300 calories a day. For a patient on chemo and radiation it is recommended they get in 2200 to 2400 calories a day just to maintain their weight and health.
On Saturday, I finally gave in and let her start making me some high calorie shakes and drinks. I was able to get in between 1100 and 1300 calories on both days. She is using high calorie boost, ice cream, fruit, whole milk and Carnation breakfast packets. This was a good start, it is just hard to put such rich food on your stomach when you are used to not eating.
We had fought most of the week about my not eating, and over the weekend I got several "Mommy Lectures" from her. She kept telling me her job was to manage my food and my pain, my job was to get through this and eat. I agreed with her, it was just hard to start packing in all these calories.
After talking with the doctor and his nurse, he told me to make eating a priority. He reminded me that Kim was on the right track and doing everything she was supposed to be doing. We then made a pact. I have to report to his office next Tuesday. If I have not added any weight or at a minimum maintained the weight I have, he is setting me up with a surgical consult the following Thursday to put in a feeding tube. This gives me one week to down as many of these high calories shakes in as I can.
Now the good news. After my consult I headed over the chemotherapy. While I was waiting to be called back I started talking to another head and neck cancer patient. I had met him last week, and he is two days behind me in treatment. As we talked he was telling me the his throat was so sore he could hardly drink. The mucous that was getting so thick in his throat that it gagged him at times and he would have to get up several times at night to rinse.
As I listened to him I realized that my prayers and the prayers of those around me have been heard and answered. I do know I will suffer these same side effects but it is such a blessing they have not started yet. The longer it takes for these to get unmanageable, the shorter amount of time I will deal with them. I keep doing mouth rinses, washes, sinus rinses and floride treatments to help thwart off the side effects. Hopefully I can get at least two more weeks under my belt before they start.
Please continue to pray for my side effects to be manageable or even light, and for today's chemo to get out of my system quickly so that I can handle the food that I have to start putting down every day this week.
Comments
Post a Comment