It's been a month now since i've posted or viewed the site. I have improved greatly in stamina and what i can eat. Would have posted sooner but my father-in-law died at age 91. He was a great guy and fortunately i was feeling good enough about the time he started going downhill to help with a lot during the funeral.

I got some great news march 27 that my CT scan came back 'excellent' according to my doctor. No sign of cancer and I don't need follow up surgery. This made for an excellent weekend. I have a follow up appointment in May and will probably get a PET scan at that time. If that is clear, and it will be, I will get this *#@!* PEG removed.

I need to find out some things to report to this forum. I knew the tumor on my tongue was 1.5 cm but wasn't sure of the size of my lymph node tumor. It seems they told me 4.5 cm when they first found it about six weeks before treatments started. I was told that the treatments will usually take care of lymph node tumors up to 3 cm which made me think i would need the surgery. I know my tumor was larger than that.

Trial Study
I was on a trial study that entailed taking both erbetux and cisplatin along with the radiation. That may have helped with the larger tumor. I'm anxious to see the results of the trial which may take a couple years. I do know that because I was on trial study they will be monitoring me forever, which fine with me.

I know a lot of you are in treatment or just finishing up and are wondering how long it will take for eating, strength etc. Here are some things about me at two months after my last chemo/rad treatment

Singing (i noticed this being discussed on another thread)
I play guitar and sing. Having the tumor on my tongue made me fear not only not being able to sing, but not being able to talk. Although I can't sing but two or three songs without thick saliva starting to build up in my throat, I can sing. Can't hit some of the higher notes, but i've seen improvement and feel I will be alright in this dept.

Stamina
Daily routine things like walking, shopping etc are no longer a problem. At this point i can't pick up a 50 pound sack of horse feed and carry it under one arm. Hay bales seem a lot heavier than they were 6 months ago too.

Eating
I have noticed i can eat without drinking as much water to wash my food down. I sometimes have a little discomfort in the roof of my mouth and BOT. Usually when I try to swallow too big of a bite. I can eat chips and salsa, but it's a too muuch of a hassle to deal with right now. Spicy foods no longer burn my throat, but i can't really taste them so i don't bother.

Speaking of Taste
Food no longer tastes bad as it once did. I'm pretty sure that's because my saliva has calmed down. I think my salivary glands are healing and blame the original bad taste on dead cells being excreted through them. Food still does not taste the same. Melted cheese, like on Mexican food, goes down real easy. This is good living in South Texas. But, it doesn't taste as good as it once did, but again, it tastes better now than it did ten days ago.

Exercising
I ran on a treadmill,did situps and lifted weights before this and have done some exercising but have found my muscles start to tighten up before i break a sweat. Not wanting to push it, i quit at that point. But, i will get there and plan on running in some of the cancer 5Ks in San Antonio when they have them.