Week 1 - First Week of Recovery - Post Radiotherapy/Chemotherapy Treatment

Hi Everyone!!

Yay no more radiotherapy for Dave!!!

Now were on the road to recovery :-)

This last week has been really lovely not having to get ready and drive in to hospital every day for treatment!!

We did make one trip on Tuesday morning so Dave could have a follow up with the specialist, nurse, dietician and speech therapist.  The specialist was really happy with Dave's progress and gave him a pep talk that the next couple of weeks won't be pleasant, but that he was nearly at the end of this awful process and that he was doing really well.

The nurse cleaned and re-dressed his neck with soothing Flamazine and a special cooling gauze especially for burns.

The dietician was happy with Dave's progress, in fact, Dave actually put on a little bit of weight this last week, with all his fluids and feeds so that was a bonus!!  In total, Dave has lost around 7kgs. He's looking very trim... just needs a bit of work now to create a six pack!!

The speech therapist was also happy with how Dave was going but will be working more closely with Dave down the track once he starts to talk again.  The speech therapist will help Dave with specific exercises because he hasn't been using his neck, tongue, throat muscles much of late!

Exercise regime!

Dave has had a relatively goodish week.  Though middle of the week he had an exceptionally bad night with coughing and a feeling of being choked constantly when he was laying down in the lazyboy chair!!! This is due to all the mucous membranes working overtime in his mouth.  We spent some of the early hours walking around our home and me massaging his back to ease the discomfort.  He now has to sit upright to sleep at night at the moment, which I must say is helping a lot.  Friday night was the first night Dave's had a comfortable night asleep, though he did wake up once.

The hourly meds and fluids regime is working well too, thankfully!!!  We did have, well I did, a moment of hilarity at one point!!! Dave just looked at me with a smirky smile on his face!!! You see, I was dispensing 20mls of gaviscon liquid into the 60ml syringe and then gradually pushing the syringe up to actually gauge how much I had in the syringe ready for Dave to administer into PEGGY... then all of a sudden it just exploded all over the kitchen ceiling!!!! I could be rude and express what it really looked like but I will leave that up to your imaginations!!!  I then had to climb on top of the kitchen bench and wipe the ceiling down... thankfully it didn't leave any marks!! Sorry forgot to take any photos in the moment of shock, hilarity and cleanup!!

I must say Dave has been the most amazing patient, from the start of all this when he had his tonsils out, then his four molars removed then throughout all the radiotherapy & chemo sessions, his resilience, determination and power of mindful thinking is getting him through this awful disease!! He has hardly complained throughout the whole process!!  Thanks for being a great patient my luv xxx

Oh and on a plus note we had our new/replacement wine fridge delivered and old one removed :-)  Thank you Delonghi and East Lake Refrigeration!!

Today, Sunday, Dave's skin on his neck is looking and feeling good now and he said the pain in his throat when swallowing has almost gone.  He was able to talk a tiny bit today too as the mucous is also not as bad today either and that he's feeling better as each day passes.

We had a lovely visit from Sherry & Les today too.  Sherry has kindly lent us their juicing machine for when Dave starts on liquids, which will be soon I hope!! Can't wait to get lots of veggie juice goodness into him!! Thanks Sherry and Les :-), and thanks a million Les for spraying all our weeds in the paving areas... your the best!!! Sunday was such a lovely day it got me motivated to weed our garden too in between each hour of giving Dave his meds and water flushes!

Anyone got any good juice recipes they swear by?

I'll be doing lots of research on whats good, i.e., ginger, tumeric, beetroot, spinach etc.

I also forgot to thank my girlfriend Suzie Q and Gordon, who weeks ago sent a wonderful Tin Tin Comic book over for Dave too, to read "The Red Sea Sharks"... thanks Sue he loves it xxx

Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts to everyone for your constant words of encouragement on Facebook, private messages, phone calls, texts, support and love.... we both really really appreciate each and everyone of them and you xxx

Onwards and upwards to week two of recovery... next week, Monday Dave has his weekly catch up with the Oncology specialist, dietician, speech therapist along with an appointment with our local GP on Tuesday.

"All you need is love,

But a little chocolate now

and then doesn't hurt."

by Charles M. Schulz

xxx