Right after I did my last post, on the following Monday, I had my radiation. In that evening I had fluid bursting out from the opening of my previous infection wound which was healed up. I had to go to emergency at Toronto General to have it looked at. Luckily it was not too busy and I was seen by the ER doc pretty quick. He paged the ENT resident on call. He determined that there was a new infection, did the draining and packing and checked me back into the hospital. The good news was that it was discovered early and should heal up quickly. I guess my diabetes doesn't help.

The doctors had to decide what to do with the radiation, so they put it on hold. I saw the radiation oncologist on Wednesday morning. He had a consult with the surgeon and they finally decided to carry on with the radiation because the risk was relatively small, namely the delayed healing of the wound. The risk of not continuing with the radiation was much higher. I actually only missed the Tuesday radiation. I was released from the hospital Friday.

Today, I had double radiation sessions 7 hours apart to make up for the missed session. So far, I've had 13 of 33 treatments. Until this point, I've had minimal side effects because I've been following the advice and heavily hydrate myself, including my diet, I put in 4-5 liters a day. But tonight, I am feeling the slight burning of the lining inside my mouth and more dryness. The skin also feels tender. I used a lot of Glaxal base and it works really well in soothing the burning.

I'm still feeding through the G-tube and I heard how important nutrition is when fighting cancer. So, in addition to the meal replacement, I prepare my own food to supplement. It mainly consists of lots of organic fish, vegetables and rice made into a porridge so I can blend and filter it and put it through the G-tube. I have been gradually reducing the cans and increasing the real food. I also switched to Glucerna (diabetic) from IsoSource 1.5 and I see a dramatic change in how well I can control my blood sugar. IsoSouce is heavy in corn syrup and is high in sugar.

I will be getting my second chemo next week. Blood test indicated my WBC dropped from 7 to 4 range, and the kidney function dropped as well. But the chemo doc thinks that they are still in the normal range. Hopefully, it will go OK. This time, knowing how badly the anti-nausea drugs constipated me the first time, I will take the stool softener along with the drugs.

Joseph