Hi Carol

I wrote a post in Facebook back in May. Five days after finishing rads I felt I was on the "home stretch". How naive was I! Thought it would be fun to share that post.

"Today's symptom of the day is brought to you by oral thrush. Once just a pesky coating on the tongue it has proven too hard to shift despite the constant mouth washes and 2 rounds of Nilstat drops. It is now yukky yellow bundle of lesions becoming a nuisance at the back of the tongue. Doc gave me a script to knock it out. So what do I need for this doc? A capsule before I go to bed every night for two weeks, probably with no side effects except it might make you drowsy with Endone. Is that all??? Pfft. Hardly a challenge. Hopefully it is that simple. Speech and diet went well today, only lost 0.7kg this week. They're happy, docs happy, all good. Not done yet, but we're definitely on the home stretch now."

Well that was May. Its November, I'm still off work, but I start back next week. Recovery takes a ridiculously long time but hey, beats the alternative.

I wanted to pick you up on you letting him down with your cooking. This is very common. Stacey prides herself on her cooking, and she went to great lengths to cook something I could eat. She would spend an hour cooking something and I would take a bite and say no. It was very frustrating for both of us, but there wasn't anything we could do about it. But there is something very important you can help with.

He needs to try all sorts of things. A mouthful at a time. Might be boiled rice and milk, or peanut butter and cream over a poached egg. Might be KFC potato and gravy. What he needs you for is ideas. He'll have weird cravings like a pregnant woman, and won't really know what he wants. Simple tastes with familiar smells worked for me. But he will get frustrated when he runs out of ideas so he'll need your help.

The PET result took a week for me too, I don't know why it takes a week. It was a long week. I'll add my prayers to the others, we have a hotline. If you ever see God's desk there's a red phone under a glass case marked "OCF".