| | Joined: Mar 2008 Posts: 3,082 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) |  Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Mar 2008 Posts: 3,082 | Adrienne
I was sad to read that you did not feel like joining your family for Christmas dinner. I'll bet they missed you.
While the cancer may have taken away your ability to eat easily, don't let it take away the social aspects of a meal with family.
It's been almost four years since I have had even a bite of food or a sip of any liquid, but I enjoy sitting with my family at our holiday meals. Sure, I'm putting some liquid down my feeding tube instead of food down my throat, but the company is great. Although my experience is that champagne won't work well in the tube, stick to wine for a New Year's toast.
Charm
65 yr Old Frack
Stage IV BOT T3N2M0 HPV 16+
2007:72GY IMRT(40) 8 ERBITUX No PEG
2008:CANCER BACK Salvage Surgery
25GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin
Apaghia /G button
2012: CANCER BACK -left tonsilar fossa
40GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin
Passed away 4-29-13
| | | | | Joined: Feb 2012 Posts: 3 Member | | OP Member
Joined: Feb 2012 Posts: 3 | Hi
You are right, they really missed me, and I really regret not joining them now. I will take your advice on board and join my family for our New Year dinner and a New Year toast (wine not champagne). There is a very slight chance I could get my swallow back, and an even sighter chance I could eat again, but I am not thinking about that at the moment. I am exercising my new tongue each day as instructed by my consultant. I am in recovery mode at the minute, enjoying my family. My boys are on a college break at the moment and I love having them at home. It's been so hard on them but they have been fantastic and are looking after me so well, as is my husband and my Mom. I am so lucky to have them all.
Thank you again for replying to me, it has made me think about things.
Adrienne
Biopsy tongue 3/1/12 (49 yrs)
Cancer 1/2/12
PET CT 6 cm lesion 16/2/12
Lge lesion, no surgery 9/3/12
Rig 15/3/12
5 Chemo 35 Radio
PET CT good response 2/10/12
Biopsy 18/10/12
MRI Lesion reduced 15/11/12
Trache, R hemiglossectomy R mod radical neck dissection, L anterolateral thigh flap 16/11/12
| | | | | Joined: May 2006 Posts: 720 Likes: 1 "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts) | | "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts)
Joined: May 2006 Posts: 720 Likes: 1 | I saw this exchange and was reminded of the column Charm wrote for the Washington Post Health section a couple of years ago.
Leslie
April 2006: Husband dx by dentist with leukoplakia on tongue. Oral surgeon's biopsy 4/28/06: Moderate dysplasia; pathology report warned of possible "skip effect." ENT's excisional biopsy (got it all) 5/31/06: SCC in situ/small bit superficially invasive. Early detection saves lives.
| | | | | Joined: Mar 2008 Posts: 3,082 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) | | Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Mar 2008 Posts: 3,082 | Adrienne
I'm glad you found my post helpful. I'll be toasting you and all the OCF posters this New Year's Eve wishing you all the best of health.
As in my article that Leslie posted, I was struck by how lonely that scene of Roger Ebert eating apart from his wife looked to us. Dinner with my wife is the high point of my day.
It's all too easy to let the side effects of the cancer treatment isolate us. [quote]Man does not live by bread alone.[/quote]
Charm
65 yr Old Frack
Stage IV BOT T3N2M0 HPV 16+
2007:72GY IMRT(40) 8 ERBITUX No PEG
2008:CANCER BACK Salvage Surgery
25GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin
Apaghia /G button
2012: CANCER BACK -left tonsilar fossa
40GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin
Passed away 4-29-13
| | | | | Joined: Nov 2006 Posts: 2,671 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) | | Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Nov 2006 Posts: 2,671 | Adrienne - I'm so glad you've been able to have more positive thoughts about joining your family for your New Year dinner! I'm sure it will be a wonderful sharing of your lives and appreciation for each other.
Charm - what a beautiful article - you have a way with words that not only brings a tender scene to us but the emotions that go along with it. The juxtaposition of the Vitamix and "transubstantiation of texture" conjures up for me something akin to a religious experience! Savoring the aroma was something my son would do when he could not taste and had trouble swallowing anything. He would spend several moments close to the bowl of chicken broth, inhaling and enjoying the vapors rising up from the broth. He said it was almost like tasting.
Leslie - thanks for posting the article!
Anne-Marie
CG to son, Paul (age 33, non-smoker) SCC Stage 2, Surgery 9/21/06, 1/6 tongue Rt.side removed, +48 lymph nodes neck. IMRTx28 completed 12/19/06. CT scan 7/8/10 Cancer-free! ("spot" on lung from scar tissue related to Pneumonia.)
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