Another countdown looms ahead in the distance....

Hi Breeders (that's what I call my blog readers)

It has been a while since I've last blogged I know. I've been going through the motions every day for the last week waiting for some sort of normality to return to my daily life. Firstly, the pain in my throat / mouth has finally started to subside although it has returned slightly today, but nowhere near as bad as it has been over the prior 2 weeks. I'm hoping that by Sunday, it would have healed up to the point that I can start attempting to eat real food again, although I'm not going to push it. I need it to recover to 100%, otherwise it'll just retreat back to the pain again which I can assure you that I do not want.

The skin on my neck has healed up nicely and no longer am I in pain. Thankfully skin can heal relatively quickly from radiation burning, especially when they give you the gel product called Intrasite to bathe your neck in. That gel not only provided relief from the burning pain, it helped the seeping open skin to close over and then heal much more rapidly. I was mentioning to a few people that the skin on my neck was becoming extremely itchy, to which everyone said "that's a good sign".  You see, I've never suffered bad sunburn before, so I wasn't privy to that piece of information. But, I am now!

Although I don't like to mention my weight, (as I know my mum reads this) I'll admit that whilst it's down slightly, it's not that bad really. Today, nearly breaking the scales as I've stepped on them, they recovered enough to report that I'm at 56.4kgs.  Now, firstly (mum), I haven't been able to keep the ensure plus down every day and that took away 4 days of feeding during the last 2 weeks.  But I'm returning as of today back to a 4 can per day feed cycle, and increasing it to 5/6 by this weekend. My goal is to be back to 60kgs by Wednesday next week.

Wednesday next week is the looming countdown as, it's the first of my 5 day straight chemotherapy cycles in hospital.  I'll be admitted to the Hotel Nepean, and the doctors plan is to treat me on Day 1 with Cisplatin (YAY!) and then Days 2-5 with Fluorouracil-or 5FU, (YAY AGAIN!),  which you may recall I referred to in my blog dated Dec 30.  I do hope hospital food has improved drastically and that my throat has healed 100%, but then again, with no taste buds to worry about, it doesn't really matter. I do have the stomach peg as a way out I suppose!

After this first cycle has been completed, I'm given 16 days to recover from the treatment, then thrown back into the deep end again for cycle two to commence on the 13th of April.  After completion of cycle two, the doctors informed me that they'll examine me after the second 16 day lay-off to determine whether I can endure a third cycle. That didn't sound good coming from them and it doesn't sound any better typing it! They believe that 2 cycles is more than enough, but would like to throw a 3rd one in for good measure, just to be sure. I applaud their care and attention, just not the prospect of a third stay in Hotel Nepean. The way I see it, what's 5 more days of treatment considering how far I've come in this journey. Overall, that's 15 days of treatment in total that lie ahead, after which time, it'll all be completed and I'm on the road to recovery.  

They tell me that the road to recovery is still a long way away, at least until August/September at this stage, but one thing you can bet on, I plan to do everything in my power to reach that target sooner, rather than later.

Ok, that's it for now. Next update will probably be from my hospital bed next Wednesday, cause you know, I'm busy and all that jazz! Thanks everyone for your continuing love and support  As I've said before, I appreciate each and every email, sms, Facebook message, letter, card, call and whatever else
has come my way.  Ciao!