Tomorrow is the start for you to eliminate your cancer. For most patients, its not the easiest thing to go thru chemo and rads. But some do get lucky and sail right thru treatments barely noticing any side effects. I hope you are one of the lucky ones who dont notice many side effects. Over the years Ive noticed the patients who do the best with their intake are the patients who get thru rads the easiest. Since you are starting your treatments tomorrow, I suggest today you spend eating like crazy. Try to have all your favorites, desserts too. From here on until you hit your first year post rads your intake needs to be at least 2500 calories and 48-64 oz of water every single day. If you can manage to take in more calories it will only help to make everything easier for you. Taking in 3000 or even 3500 calories a day is not too much for patients who are going thru rads or those patients who are in recovery. Make sure you take in extra water on chemo day. You probably will be given extra fluids along with the chemo. But still drink lots of water to flush that poison out of your system. If you notice anything unusual, even minor things like ears ringing speak up and notify your nurses and doctors. To me, having any hearing change or difference in kidney function are potentially huge problems down the road. Different chemos have different things to watch out for. Make certain you tell all your medical team about any changes in how you normally feel, no matter how minor.

Feeding tubes can take a little getting used to. The first couple days with it, you may be a bit sore. Any discomfort is temporary, in time you will find having a feeding tube painless. Theres all kinds of tricks for taking meds and doing feedings. Ive used a feeding tube for almost all of 10 1/2 years since my original diagnosis. If you need help, feel free to ask questions.

Theres an app called "speak it" for ipads. By now it may be available on other computers, laptops or tablets other than Apple products. The speak it app would enable you to go back to using your ham radio. You simply type what you want to same and push a button to have your computer read what you typed. I had a close friend who lost her ability to talk by having her voice box removed. She would make phone calls with the speak it app. When we got together, we would sit and "chat" and laugh just like we always did. I would definitely look into this. Rads are cumulative, it gets more difficult as treatments continue. Most of us have had our treatments impact our speech. Using speak it, you could type whatever you wanted to say and let the computer talk for you. Im pretty sure there are different options you can choose for how your voice would sound with speak it. If you need help with the app, maybe check with your children or grandchildren. Kids now a days are born with a computer in their hands. I dont know how they know all the ins and outs of any electronic device you hand them.

Best of luck tomorrow!!!