Side Effects

First off, an update on my progress: I can now fully breathe through my nose, something I haven’t been able to do in months.  Which means that my tumour has shrunk significantly.  I have an MRI scheduled for next week so they can get a clearer picture, and adjust my radiation treatments accordingly to target the tumour directly, and minimize radiation to where it’s not needed.

Ok, so some people have asked me how I’m feeling, what’s going on “day-to-day”, and what kind of side effects that I’m getting from the radiation and chemotherapy.

The first thing that I really encountered was tiredness. Almost immediately after I started radiation, I could feel that I was tired, and almost in a bit of a fog. I mean, they are shooting radiation at my head, and because of the location of the tumour (in my sinuses) some of the radiation hits my brain. Fun stuff, right?

Some days are worse than others, where I will come home after a treatment and need to sleep for a bit.  Other days, it almost doesn’t even affect me, and I’m good for the rest of the day.

I then experienced a really bad case of nausea after chemotherapy, even though I was on all kinds of anti-nausea medication. My doctor mentioned that, for some reason, younger patients tend to have early onset of nausea after chemo.

Those two, however, have so far been only temporary, and with some rest and medication, I’ve been able to feel better.  The worst has been what is going on in my mouth and throat. Between having a really dry mouth and really thick saliva because of the way the radiation affects the salvia glands, to having what are essentially lots of canker sores in my mouth, because the tissue in your mouth is very sensitive to the effects of radiation, I’m now very limited with what I can eat. Anything acidic just burns my mouth (no more tomato sauce!!!!), and most things needs to be pretty soft so I can swallow them easily. Right now, it’s pretty much pasta with butter, boiled eggs, and boiled vegetables, so ensuring I’m eating as much as I can has been difficult on some days.  I use a mouthwash to help numb my mouth to help me eat, and it does help somewhat, but it doesn’t last very long.  Plus, I don’t really have a lot of taste left, so I’m pretty much only eating for nutrition at this point….. Which if you know me, you know how much I love good food.

But with still more than 4 more weeks of radiation to go, the sores and pain are only going to get worse, and I will likely at some point, no longer be able to eat. That’s why today, I’m at Princess Margaret to get a feeding tube “installed”, which will let me be able to “eat” by putting Ensure or Boost directly into my stomach, as well as any fluids and medication I need. Like I said, fun stuff!!!

And because my nose still gets stuffed up at night, I end up with a really dry mouth, and wake up in pain from the sores drying out.  So I have to get up, rinse my mouth with a baking soda solution, and drink some water. Which happens about every two hours.  But with an 18 month old, I’m used to walking up every two hours…………… Ok, you never get used to that.

I mean, it sucks, right? But it’s only temporary. It’s only for a few weeks, and by the time the summer rolls around, I’ll be tell jokes like “remember the time I had that feeding tube……”

And to make sure my body doesn’t forget how to swallow, I have to do swallowing and tongue exercises (save the jokes guys, I’ve already made them all).

The other things I can expect are some skin rashes around my neck, and I’m likely to lose some hair at the back of my neck, sort of like a bad hair cut.  But it will grow back!!! Hopefully it will help some of the hair at the top of my scalp to grow back……….

So that’s that…. Side effects of my cancer. A pain, but part of the process of #kickingcancersass