I was debating whether or not to post and if I did post under what section to post. I sort of need to vent. My last treatment day was last Friday, the 11th. So I'm six days out, but cannot understand why these are the worst days and nights EVER. I don't mean to be a whiner about all this crap, but the iressa drug seems to have kicked my ass good. My neck and back are nothing but a huge scab of goo from this horrendous violent outbreak of acne. It was quite incredible actually. It seemed like overnight my skin became a pebbly beach of scabby stuff. It even spread to my throat area. The last week of treatment, the nurses were kind enough to wrap petrolatum dressings on it and gauze wrap my neck so I could get home okay without it all dripping onto the seat in my car. Now that I'm out of treatment. I pretty much just keep the area clean as possible, but I am not wrapping dressings on anymore. THey get gooed to the gauze and when I try to remove the dressings, the scabs just begin bleeding.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with my surgeon who I'm sure would like to set up the appointment in the next few weeks for the neck dissection. He refused to answer any of my questions earlier about it because it was too soon to be answering my questions about the neck dissection. For the past week I have had NO, and I mean NO voice at all. I cannot speak. It hurts too much. I got mad yesterday because I gave my spouse the number for the liquid food people to deliver and an order to deliver two crates of Ensure and gravity feed bags. He called the order in, and the idiot people called me at home trying to discuss this order and I cannot speak. I really pissed me off as I had tried to head this off at the pass by getting my spouse to order and talk to them.

Anyway, I still don't know how I'm going to communicate with the ENT guy tomorrow. Nothing makes sense. My mouth is so dry, swallowing hurts, and I can't talk at all. One day I can have a voice, and then it will disappear for a week? I'm still battling the mucous situation and everytime I do sit down for feeding with the PEG, I just know I'll be at the sink throwing it up in a few hours.

What I need to hear is when did the corner turn? People have told me to expect bad days after treatment. I thought I could handle it, but it's been almost a week and they just seem to be getting worse. I feel like I'm getting weaker and not stronger. I don't even know why I'm going to be talking neck dissection tomorrow when I can't even imagine my skin healed up enough to handle it.

Additionally, I just really need to hear some positive news. Does this generally come AFTER they do a neck dissection and have pathology to read? I don't know when I'll know where I stand in this fight or if I'm succeeding.

Well, I'm going to go see if I can't get a nap or something in. I'm just having a rough time. My patience is wearing thin and I just feel like I'm treading water here.

Thanks for listening.
Jen

Jan, this sounds pretty typical for this stage of treatment. It might a little worse even before you start to turn the corner. The full radiation effects continue for several weeks post Tx. So the burns, mucositus, etc. will continue. The skin on the neck is the first to heal, last being the tongue and tissues in the throat. There was an FDA "Dear Doctor" letter issued about Iressa - ask your oncologist. I posted more detailed information in another area of the site.

Figure about 3 weeks to turn the corner and progress measured in three increments for a couple of months. Patience!

Jen,

Calm down, Relax and try to understand radiation in culmitive. What your feeling is the build up of several weeks of intense radiation.

You will "turn the corner" as Gary said. I felt exactly the same way. I thought ok it's over time to get on with my life. Boy was I wrong.

It took a good 4 months before I felt normal (relative term). I did feel better after about 3 to 4 weeks as things started healing. I have said this on several occasions. I used to look back on the week that passed and say man, I really felt bad last week. This went on for several months. Next is the depression and over emotional cycle. This is where you cry at the drop of a hat. Another fine result of radiation. Then of course you cant forget the withdrawl from pain meds cycle. Then you hit the 1 good day 4 bad day cycle. That turns into the 4 good day 1 bad day cycle. Then you just feel better. You will get through this.
Stay hydrated what ever you do.
Drop me a line if you wanna talk.
Robert

That stupid company that delivers my gravity bags and canned food finally made a delivery today. The man was an asshole. He called twice before delivering... called yesterday to find out when to deliver. This entire order I wrote out for my husband to call in and set up so I could "spare" my voice. Then I had that pig of an idiot in my house this afternoon without the order I had placed. Even after I explained to him that I cannot TALK.... ooooo... I want to curse so bad. All I wanted was another order of the gravity bags, and two cases of the Prosure. The idiot man shows up with two cases of the high fiber nitrogen stuff, one case of prosure, one case of syringes, one case of gravity bags.

I was disappointed. I told him to leave only the prosure and the gravity bags.

Logical question? How do I start getting off the PEG tube feeding thing? Every time I try to eat normal food, it tastes terrible and gross. Should I start with soups and applesauce?

Either way, I'm going to need to quit dealing with this company that delivers the liquid food. The guy is a stupid ape.

Jen

Hi Jen, sorry things have been such a challenge. I found that it took me about 3 weeks before things stabalized and a few after that before things started to improve. From that point it has been a constant improvement with the difference from week-to-week getting smaller because you are getting closer to recovery. After a year I still look back a few weeks and say "you know, I feel better than I did a few weeks ago".

The good news for me was a couple of days after the surgery when the pathology report showed no cancer left. The chemo/rad had killed it all. I started to almost float from the good news. Had to ask the doctor to repeat it as I wasn't sure I had heard right. What a blessed feeling.

As far as the peg went, I got off it in late June, 4 months after treatment ended. After rad I couldn't talk either and used and etch-a-sketch type thing to communicate. Couldn't even swallow my own saliva. Now, like Ed I'm watching my cheeseburger intake as 20 pounds more weight is about enough.

Food taste is something I am still waiting for. Some of the folks have gotten their taste back within months. I'm a year out and still waiting. I taste some things, sort of, but generally I eat because I know I have to, not for the taste. Then again, my appetite came back and I do get hungry, just not much taste yet.

Hang in there, it will get better and better as the effects of the rad start to ease a bit.

Hi Jen,
You're in the worst time right now. I remember feeling SO dissapointed because I had expected to feel better as soon as treatment ended. I hadn't found this message board yet so I had no idea what was normal and what wasn't. All I knew was that after two weeks I still didn't have a voice, I still had an open area on my neck and I felt horrible. I marked off on a calender, religiously, each and every radiation day, a big old X, waiting for the last day so life would pop back to normal. Didn't happen that way. After about three weeks to a month I started feeling improvement. Eating was a slow process so have patience with it. I gave into the "tube" and used it to my advantage. It gave me the nutrition I needed to heal quicker. Don't be to quick to get it taken out.
I hope you turn that corner we all describe to you very soon.
Minnie

Jen, I often said that days after treatment could be more difficult than those during treatment because the side effects are cumulative. I also lost my voice for about 3 weeeks and gradually recovered. Since I didn't have neck dissection or PEG tube, my reaction might be different.The maximum dose of radiation (48 times) and 4 rounds of cisplatin led to the complete loss of my saliva. I could still whisper and swallow. After treatment, I kept my appetite and the taste didn't completely disappear. I only lost my sweet taste bud and it has never returned.Things could still get worse for a while but you will turn the corner soon. No one can tell you exactly when because we react very differently. For me, I suffered from depression when I was 3 months post treatment. So I needed a further 3 months to recover from my mental illness. From diagnosis to my cure, back to my previous job, it took me about 8 months. Be patient and be strong, you will soon get out of the tunnel.

Karen.

Jen, babe, I was right with you. Everyone's post have been spot on; it's cummulative but you WILL turn the corner. I remember turning REALLY bitter shortly after treatment b/c my body wasn't the 100% I wanted it to be WHEN I wanted it to be. Those feelings are normal and you will get by them.
As for communicating, I had a laptop to IM my husband all day who sat feet away. I rolled my eyes and threw my hands in the air when people left voicemails saying "I wanted to see how you're feeling, give me a call when you have a chance." People just don't get it b/c they've never been through it. It's kinda funny months later when they realize the mistake and say something resembling an apology to you.
I also used a notebook, especially when I was in the hospital for brachey and they put in a feeding tube that I didn't want. As I read your posts, my face screws up in that nose wrinkle, eye squint, and dagger stares remembering the frustration. I would write as fast as my little hands would go, underlining and circling words, pointing my pen furiously at what I wrote. I know you don't beleive it now, but I look back and laugh at those times.
Just think - when you get your voice back, you can call and yell at them ALL you want. I find an especially detailed letter to the company's president does the trick, even better when you say "I would like to know this is addressed and that future patients don't have to go through the....(Lay it on)".
My surgical oncologist explained recovery in these terms "Each day or week you may not feel better and better, but each quarter you'll notice a big improvement". He was right.
Even now, 9 months out of treatment, I'm going incredibly strong, yet Monday my body was exhausted (you know that feeling where your mind is fine but your body is saying "Nope. Sorry. I'm calling the shots right now, thank you"), and I went to bed at 8. My good friends' baby goes to bed between 9 and 10. Again, it makes me laugh.
When your voice comes back, it may sound a little rusty, so don't get frustrated. Most people that didn't know me thought I had a cold, and you can easily explain it away to that.
And don't EVER feel like you're whining to us. We've been there and know what it's like. Feel free to vent any and all frustrations!
Sabrina

Well, still no voice. I'm still pissed off about the man who kept calling to give me the delivery of food. Guess I could write them a nice letter. I suppose the fool I was dealing with OWNS the company? Nothing in this surreal world will surprise me. The surgeon performed one of those painful scope and chokes on me despite my radiated and scabby flesh. After blinking off the tears he says that the tumor is no longer there, but they will need to do the neck surgery on the nodes. I don't want surgery scheduled at all until I've turned some sort of corner. As it is now, I don't have ANY good days at all or good nights. We also spent another two hours because he wanted a CT scan of the nodes anyway.

I forgot to explain one other thing. My one close local friend sort of ran off on me as soon as she found out that I had cancer. I tried to make excuses for this thinking she couldn't handle the news, but have since come to a different conclusion. She's upset because I can't DO anything for her at the moment. She called me up wanting to know if I was mad at her, and then I asked her if she got the card from me for her birthday. Can you believe she was upset with ME? because I hadn't sent her anything for her birthday? She finally found the card and the gift certificate, but other than that I've pretty much forgotten what she looks like. She just doesn't give a crap because I cannot go out for lunch at Chili's and rip some mudslides or margaritas with her. In fact, despite the fact that I eat through a tube, she wanted my spouse and me to accompany her and her boyfriend out to dinner so we could what else.... celebrate her and her birthday. She also called, talked to me for one minute with the customary how are you doing? and then asked to speak with my husband about this computer she wanted to buy. She spoke to my husband for 30 minutes without even mentioning me, or asking about how I was doing, it was all about what she needed in a new computer system. When he hung up the phone, he shook his head and went "Geeze, what a piece of work."

Anyway, I'm dealing with alot. Mucho pain, not much relief. I just want to hop around the corner to mending and I still feel like I'm just putting one foot in front of the other and getting through it. Guess I could grasp the "no tumor" as good news.

If I got my voice back, I'd feel a major victory here. The dr. told me today I won't feel good for another four weeks. That's exactly around when I go through the neck dissection. I don't think I'm going to make it to "feeling good" before they toss me in the hospital for the next step. I just know I won't survive it if they do it when I'm feeling this poorly.

Jen

jen,

email me the phone number and I will happy to curse them out for you. I am ripe for ripping someone these days and all I need is an excuse. :-)

I have a very elaborate vocabulary and I am sure that I can get through to them without any ambiguity at all.

Also keep in mind that there is an advantage to having the mucos as thick as it is. Just spit on him. He will spend a week trying to get it off. Oh and tell him it is radioactive.

Revenge is sweet my friend.

Cindy

Cindy - LOVE that idea.

Jen - look at it this way, at least you know what kind of person she really is and can cut her out of your life. I learned a lot about people and friends when I was sick - who I could depend on and who I couldn't. It changed my life for the better.

When I was first diagnosed, I was spending hours and hours and hours on the phone with doctors and at doctors appointments. People were randomly emailing me little questions or leaving voicemails. I'd respond to them as fast as I could. Then my mother-in-law calls me AT WORK, in the middle of juggling work and the doctors, to complain. Yes, she was pissed off that her sister and daughter knew answers to questions she didn't know. My first thought was "Hello, honey, this BELIEVE IT OR NOT is something NOT ABOUT YOU! You're right, my objective in all this is to make sure you're left out."
I said it before, I'll say it again. People just don't get it.
Again - I laugh at the story now. Hang in there, the laughter will come.

Sabrina

Cindy - I agree with Sabrina...that is a GREAT idea

Dear Jen,

I can only speak from the caregiver point of view, but hang in there girl it will get better! You just have to have a little patience. With respects to your "friend", she sounds like a very selfish person. Maybe she's always been like that and you are now seeing her true colors?? It's amazing how something like this can really make you find out who your true friends are. And unfortunately, she doesn't sound like one of them...Spend time with the people who truly care about you.

Best of luck to you Jen, I'm rooting for you!!!

Shelley

Adding to Sabrina's comments...

I have one friend who makes me crazy. Her heart is in the right place but she just doesn't know when to just vacate.

She calls and at first will ask how Harry is, and then me, and then she asks if I am mad at her. I look at my phone and my head fills with ?????????????????????????????

What in the hell is she talking about? I don't even have time to be mad at myself, let alone anyone else.

Then there is the ongoing need for recognition between my step daughter and my sister. If I (God forbid) forget to mention a name in my daily online journal entry then I get the emails... well you thanked your sister but what about so and so.... or my mother even sent me an email to tell me that I had thanked my step daughter by name and just called my sister "my sister".

I never replied to the email. I love my mother dearly and I am sure that she wasn't in her right mind when she wrote it so I let it go.

But I can tell you that often I want to yell at the people in our life and say " HEY IT AIN'T ABOUT YOU!!!"

Some of our friends and even family members just suffer from foot in mouth disease and to be honest neither myself nor Harry has the strength nor energy to really worry about it. Oh and we both possess enough - don't give a shit - attitude right now that it just rolls off.

I have stopped trying to apologize for not returning phone calls and the like.

They are either going to understand or they aren't and it is not my job to make them.

Jen, Your friend might seem to be very self-centered at the moment because she doesn't know what to say or if to say and maybe she is really unaware of how it is coming across.

My best bud and I hardly see each other anymore. Her son and my son are best friends and they go over to each other's houses. (We just live around the corner from each other). I used to see her all of the time and we would sit an have a beer, go out together, etc. But 2 summers ago her mother died after a 14 month battle with lung cancer. I do not fault my friend for withdrawing. I think that it is just difficult for her and we all have our own way of dealing with things.

I take what I can get and I make sure that I find friends who will understand. Then I try to understand my friends that don't understand and I feel better inside.

Not everyone is going to be able to cope with this. Lord knows everyone here knows that. Sometimes as patients and caregivers we don't really cope either. I just find that holding the pain of being rejected and the anger for a friend who isn't coping the way you want just makes things worse for you.

If all else fails.... invite her over and spit on her too. :-)

(having to clean up the mucous left in every container with a drain in my house I can say first hand that it is better than rubber cement)

If it is a guy, tell him that your spit will make his hair fall out and he will be impotent forever. That should fix everything. Take care of yourself and thanks for sharing your current experience. Harry will finish rad tx one week from Monday (only 5 txs left). He feels worse and worse everyday and yesterday and today myself and the rad techs have really had to talk him into the rad room. He is vomiting again and it takes all of his strength. PEG insertion on Monday and hopefully he will feel a little better.

Now I realistically know what to look forward to and I can help him through it better.

Thanks for sharing. God I love this place!!!

Cindy

Jen, I don't think the neck dissection is going to add much, if anything, to your woes, and by then you will feel better anyway. I had practically NO pain, and when I got home, was out working in the garden the next day. It really is a cake walk compared to what you have already endured. Look at it as the last hurdle and it is all downhill and clear skies after that. My voice was totally gone for about 10 days, then a soft whisper, then suddenly occasional normal sounds and about two days after that normal voice. It is all going to be fine.

Cindy, your suggestion about what to tell a guy is priceless! You, too, are going to be okay as long as you are thinking like that.

Oh man, I hope you are right Joanna. And thanks to all of you for your responses. I can't even worry about the neck dissection when I'm this screwed up. Tonight I spent at least an hour kneeling up next to my bathroom sink trying my best to alleviate myself from lumps of mucous. There's just no "time out" button you can hit to get any sort of relief. This reminds me, I need to do something for pain I'm still debating whether or not to wrap up the neck with all the sores on it or see if it can air dry tonight.

Here's hoping I can get some rest tonight.

Jen

OK, now for the unpopular (man's) perspective. FIrst, the home health care folks may be hiring cheap labor to keep their costs down so they can provide service while fighting for reimbursement from the insurance companies. Second, your friend may be doing you the best favor of all by trying to treat you as if you don't have cancer. Any opportunity to resume some type of normalcy is a good thing. I went to work 3 weeks after treatment because the company was struggling and trying to can me to save money. (They still owe me over $20,000 wages.)

Your husband should call the company and tell them he took the time to tell them exactly what they should do and they blew it. Inform them it is not acceptable and to call him if there is any problems since you can not talk. Give them one more chance and find their replacement. There are many companies that are trying to survive by giving excellent customer service and they don't appear to be one.

Last and the hardest to say. Find a good way to vent your anger. Teeing off on everybody may feel good temporarily but long-term it may not be the best way to get things done that you need.

Everything you describe is about the same as I experienced and very similar to what everyone posts at your stage. It will improve but it won't be overnight. I can show you the picture of me with the raw bloody neck when my out of country relatives visited. It was a horrible sight as I look back on it and they were just shocked when I picked them up since I never mentioned anything to them until then.

I vividly remember sitting in my office, 400 miles from home, determined to not go back to my motel. I filled up a trash can a day with the nasty, thick brown goo. I vomitted up anything I ate or drank, ran an IV pack all day at work, used TPN IV feedings all night long to keep up my strength and told everybody I was just fine. I drove the 400 miles so I could lug an SUV packed full of medical crap. Was it fun...no. I just had to help the family financially so when the treatment was over, we weren't totally in financial ruin.

Jen, you can do this. It is about as bad right now as it gets, maybe a bit worse around the corner. You may dislike me for the candid responses I have given you but it is really meant because I want you to see the other side, if you will. Heck, I will even come visit you so you can kick my ass up and down the street like a tin can, if it helps you. And, I know you don't want to hear this ,but someday, you will look back at your home health care delivery experiences and chuckle. I still remember the bozos that called me and questioned me about stuff as I gave a silent, muffled yell in the phone just to hear them keep saying,...WHAT??? WHAT??? WHAT???. The amazing thing is that we only had to replace the batteries in the cordless phone when I thought I busted it.

Email me if there is anything I can do to help (if I haven't offered enough already

There are a few things you can do to help you sleep and even for the sores on the neck that won't hurt as much.

I really do care...

Ed

You are beautiful Ed!!!

Cindy

I must be just having a really bad weekend. I keep thinking of you, Ed, anyway, and wonder how anyone could work along with this crap. I finally made it through all the radiation and chemo, but feel so terrible at the moment that if the surgeon wanted to book the neck dissection, I'd have to say "Wait a minute" My poor body is just weary. It's been two weeks since I've had a conversation that involves speaking. I can't remember when I was last out in public outside of the cancer center. I'm sick of trying to get six cans of food down a PEG and not throwing it all back up. Sleeping is terrible. I did celebrate a victory today of not needing any sort of medicine or suppository for a bathroom trip.

I'm not even sure when I'll hear how I'm faring in this battle, but for the past three months I can tell I've done nothing but wage war on cancer. :::sigh::: I'm just so tired and strung out. I think I'm dehydrated because my fingers are getting pruney looking. Even when I put water in my PEG it will come out via the mouth.

I'm so grateful to all of you who post and keep us going. Before I give up completely, I'm going to try to buck up one last time to get over the last hurdle.

I don't know where I'd be without this forum.

Jen

Jen,

You are doing it and that is what is important! You find the strength to get on your computer an type, and talk to everyone here. I do not know how Ed worked through this either, Harry won't even get out of bed and he refuses to eat at all. He has tried to use the computer but he says he can hardly see the screen and he cannot concentrate. He can't even read a newspaper or a magazine.

Hang in their girl. As each day passes you are one step closer. It may seem slow but never let the goal out of your sights. Hang onto your family and you can make it.

You have spirit and will and it comes across in everything you write. Use that spirit to pull yourself through this and know that there are many of us out here pulling for you.

Cindy

If you want to know a real warrior, check out some of the posts from my dear friend KirkGeorgia. He was a traveling salesman and didn't want to take pain meds for fear of dulling his perceptions while driving. W-H-E-W is all I can think. I hope you don't mind me summarizing and paraphrasing your journey, Kirk.

Ed

Hi Jen,
On one of your posts, uou asked about foods you might be able to try. I started with apple juice, apple sauce, flat Frasca or Ginger Ale, coffee, black, beer, scrambled eggs, poached eggs, yogurt, pasta with cream sauce, soups, mostly cream, romaine lettuce with Kraft blue cheeese dressing, cream of wheat with lots of honey, butter and hot milk, rare steak cut in tiny pieces, lamb chops with mint jelly, mixed vegetables, corn, etc. You need to pcik foods that have a lot of natural moisture and serve meats with a sauce. One day something would taste good and the next day like crap. You have to keep experimenting but the sooner you can start taking food orally, the better you should feel. It is not like you have to eat everything orally like I did. My tongue was very burnt so I had to have no spices. Unfortunately I did not keep a journal so all this is from memory from 8 years ago. I did go back to work 3 weeks after rad and had to eat in company cafeteria so I was on soup and sald by then.

They had me on a high protein diet of 80gms a day, so it took lots of milk and Ensure Plus to maintain that with the amount of food I could eat. Check with the dietician on that and what you can eat. Mine also put me on zinc, Vit C & E. Remember I only had a neck dissection, rad but no chemo so my experience may be different.

Hope you are feeling better soon and trust me I know how frustrating it cna be to not be able to talk. I still have my steno pad with my RAGE notes on it.

Take care,
Eileen

Eileen, thank you so much. I was trying to think this morning on what I could do to get myself eating better... or at least eating something besides that awful formula from the PEG tube. I don't know where to start, but figure I should start trying stuff and getting myself off the PEG. I miss food almost as much as I miss talking.

I am going to ponder awhile and perhaps later post a topic on what everybody tried when they were getting off the PEG.

Hi Jen,
I remember desperately missing food! I went from about third week of radiation to a few months after radiation ended only sipping water. It was a very rough thing to handle as food is such a social thing and to me is a comfort. The thing that helped me tremendously was to cook up a storm. I spent tons of money on brand new cooking utensils and the cupboards were over flowing. I bought every cookbook I could get my hands on and cooked dishes I never would have considered before cancer. It made me feel better to serve it to my family and I found great joy in smelling it. Sad thing is, I'm a hopeless cook.....go figure. Man, what I put my husband through was just plain wrong.....he still gives me a wary look when I bring him a plate of food. I have retired the cookbooks, my older girls have "borrowed" most of my new cooking gear, and I'm back to preparing my usual "plain maine" food......veggie, potatoes, bread and meat.
Try cooking, it might be therapeutic for you as it was for me.
Minnie

Jen,

I remember dreaming of a pizza. It was all I thought about for awhile. I would feel so sorry for myself and think "Will I ever be able to eat a pizza again?". The last treatment I had was right before Memorial Day of last year. I too thought "All done, now I will get better!" Bring it on. I even planned a weeks vacation with my entire family the first week of June. Talk about insane. The month of June was horrible. Was on a pain patch until the end of July. The worst was the sores in the mouth and the swallowing. Pain patch helped some but I had to take some tylenol with codiene on top of it. And the worst part was feeling out of it and not "in control" of things. When I was ready to get things down orally I started with shakes. Applesauce burned and so did mash potatoes. One thing that I didn't like before but it soon became my best friend was cottage cheese (I would add peaches to it) it was so smooth and the coolness helped the throat. When I was desperate I would drink a can of Boost just for the calories. Alfredo sauce was also my buddy and gravies too. And washing every bite down with water!!! My dietician at the hospital was a great source of knowledge and gave me some info with recipes for people who are trying to eat again. Alot of shakes. They even told me to add ganola oil to a shake to get some calories. That was a big deal to them. I had to really prove I was maintaining my weight before ever pulling the peg. It was finally pulled Sept. 10. (Installed April 1.)
I know you want this all to be over and it will be soon. But just know that everyweek you will feel a little better. Some weeks something new might pop up, more tired or ear pain, whatever. But it does gradually get better. Never thought the day would come when I would say it, but it does. Talk to the Dr. about the eating/vomiting problem maybe it's the food your on. When I took that family vacation I prearranged to have my food shipped and waiting for me. Guess what didn't arrive for 4 days?? I had to go to a pharmacy and buy ensure to put into my tube. It made me soooo sick. My regular "food" was Nutren. So maybe it's not agreeing with you. There was about 3 weeks when I couldn't talk and that drove me nuts. I remember one night when my husband and daughter were both not at home and I just started freaking out and getting all nervous. What if something was to happen to me?? I couldn't call anyone to tell!!!! Now I laugh that I was able to even shut up for that long a time!
It will improve! But it can be slow. Just try to take the best care of yourself possible and get as much rest as you can. You just went thru alot! ASk for something to sleep at night from your Dr. if you have to.

Take care of yourself. I swear it only gets better. Give yourself a week for every week you had radiation to finally feel "normal".
C

Jen,
I was one who suffered alot with nausea even after treatment ended,ironically I spent hours watching the food channel, all the good looking food -no smells! I tried aromatic oil of peppermint,it seemed too help. Also "Carnation Instant Breakfast" made in a blender with a little extra real vanilla and 4/5 ice cubes. I could stand the vanilla taste, it was the first to come back and the ice cubes gave it some body so I could swallow,plus the cold was sooo nice. I still like to start the day with one. It will get better,I promise!
Sue