just a little nervous about andys "final 5" march 8th. i even went back on my old posts to review his first week to make sure that i am right to assume that one week of IMRT will not really affect him.
although i think he is doing really good, compared to others, he still has issues. his hearing is bad, no taste, always cold, weak, eyesight problems. he doesnt really have any eating issues, although the MO told him he still needs to put 2 cans a day in PEG to supplement. his breathing is almost back to normal. he has managed to put on 3 lbs in 3 weeks.

i know its only been 4 weeks, and he still has alot of recovery to do. i truly think that the strides he has made so far are amazing.
he is a little upset at the fact that his hair was black, and came back silver. on the good side, it came back fuller in that little balding area...so u give up one thing for the other---i tell him! but people think he is my dad-even though we are basically the same age, and it is upsetting to him.

thanks for letting me vent a little....

Hi Teresa. Hang in there! You two are so close to having the treatment part of this behind you. It sounds like Andy is doing better. I guess the break certainly helped. It's interesting about the "hair issue". John has grey hair and had a full beard before treatments started. When his hair grew back after treatments it came back black and downey soft, like baby hair along the base of his neck. His beard is gone for good - too many spots where the whiskers didn't come back. From what I have seen, this cancer really does "age" people. John is 9 years older than me and I look young for my age so I had to laugh about the "father" comment. If you check out my pictures on FB you can see how much different John looked before and after. Keeping you guys in my prayers and hopefully Andy will sail through the "March madness".

Theresa, that's whining??? No way.
You guys are so close to the end. When I first came on, Andy's treatment had just been interrupted and I felt your frustration. But it sounds like it might have helped both of you to have a breather. Hang in there.
Pitchers and catchers reported. And even though Andy will be rooting for the Mets ,it sounds like he will be doing it in a nice, loud voice...

Wanda, I e-mailed you this but I really thought John looked great in his pictures. They were so encouraging that this is what a year out of treatment looked like.

Have his TSH levels checked. Some of what you described may be hypothyroidism which is a typical side effect of radiation in the oral cavity.

david, ur talking about the thyroid...right??? i had the MO check those. he gave andy a prescription and said dont fill it unless u hear from me. he didnt call. if there was anything wrong, he WOULD have called.

Teresa

"anything wrong" with TSH levels is not an agreed upon standard by MOs especially. Most doctors who went to Med school in the 21st century use 3.0 TSH as the upper limit in accordance with the Endocrologist organizations' revised standards seven years ago. Doctors who went to Med school last century cling to the 4.5 or 5.5 upper TSH levels used by commercial labs. It took me months to find a 21st century trained endo doc so I could get proper treatment. Like yourself, I was fooled by my MO who said exactly the same thing and it wasn't until this year that I demanded to see the actual numerical TSH level results.
I now know never to accept any doctor's truncated diagnosis of "normal" without pushing for actual factual details they based it upon
Charm

What prescription did he give him which was not filled?

You guys are doing great. I think it is awesome he can eat. I am four weeks out and I can beging tot aste things, but they will not go down. I had some yogurt this morning and it would not go down, it just sat at the top of my throat. It did not matter how much swallowing I did or how much water I swallowed. UGH I am so glad he can eat as well as he can. YOu will be done before you know it.

When I was relearning to eat and drink after my 2nd surgery I found that drinking from a bottle of water was far easier than sipping from a cup. The trajectory of the water from the bottle seemed to hit more at the back of my mouth/throat and made swallowing food (and the water) a whole lot easier. In time, drinking from a cup improved too - but try drinking from a bottle - maybe that will help.

Let me know.

Donna

point taken charm!
david-i am not sure what the prescription was. i put it in my back pocket, then washed the pants. if the MO would have called, i would have had him call it in.