Hi everyone. Brief update 9 weeks after treatments finished:

Eating solids is still a difficult grind. I am pushing myself to eat everything but I find it to be a mental obstacle to devote myself to it 24/7. Still very little appetite, taste buds coming around but still a work in progress, and some level of discomfort with each swallow. Nonetheless I am convinced that I have to continue to make progress in this area.

Energy comes back in fits and starts for me. I generally feel more alert and energetic in the morning and can do more and eat more. Some days it is hard to stay awake much past early evening, other days are much better. It’s hard to link my varying energy levels with anything - they just seem random.

A couple of weeks ago, I started to feel a bit of a tingling sensation on the right side of my tongue about half the distance between the tip and base. At first, I didn’t think much about it, but felt a bit of pain when doing exercises my speech pathologist suggested for stretching out my jaw. The pain has gotten progressively worse over the past couple of weeks and I called my radiation oncologist about it this week. I’m a bit paranoid that there is some residual tumour activity in my tongue. I was already scheduled for a follow up mri’s and ct scan this week so the oncologist suggested sticking with those appointments and she will review the results Jan 12. I realize that there can be lots of more benign explanations for these new pains than a return of cancer but 9 weeks out of treatment it is hard to think about it rationally objectively.

Anyone with suggestions on riding this emotional roller coaster, please chime in. Will let you know outcome of scans after review on Jan 12.