Hi all,

So I made it through the 30 treatments. It felt like it was never, ever going to end. But end it did.

Now onto the healing part. My doctor is the type who likes to tell you how bad you will feel - he said, well the first two weeks post treatment you will feel worse than you do now, and then by 6 weeks, you will start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Then, you look a bit down. Gee, with that kind of pep talk, yep, am a bit! Thanks for noticing.

First thing I did was make an appointment with an acupuncturist (this fellow is associated with an integrative cancer clinic in Ottawa where I live and he helped me regain the full range of motion in my right arm after my neck dissection.

I felt immediately and markedly better during his treatment, and just slightly better now, a day later, with all my accupressure points still on. We are focusing on the swelling, nausea and pain swallowing for now.

But that's an aside - I am, as I have been for several weeks, coughing up GREEN mucous. Everyone else notes that they cough up brown or yellow mucous. To me green = infection, but I've raised it to my RO several times, and since it is not coming from my lungs, he is not concerned. But I kinda am?? Did anyone else cough up green mucous? Maybe everyone does?

And, I almost made it to the end with intact skin - but the skin around my scar finally broke down on my second last treatment. I had lymphedema (aka big mother of a double chin, half mine and half courtesy of the lack of lymph nodes) before (and it is worse now) so I have a fold of swelling on the scar, which is making a gooey/infected mess. They have given me a topical antibiotic creme to use and I have been only using it since yesterday, but they want me to gently scrub off the scabs. Hmmm, my mother always told me to not pick my scabs, so I'm struggling with that one as well! Anyone else have issues with their scar/neck? Obviously the goo has to go, but the scabbing elsewhere?

I couldn't have gotten through without your words of encouragement and without knowing that there are others out there who have faced this and much worse, and didn't go completely insane!