And, they make the last turn . . . and here they are . . . on the home stretch . . .

The last two weeks have, generally, been pretty rough. Last weekend we had the whole puking/hospital thing that was miserable. We got that cleared up and it hasn't returned, fortunately, but my lips/tongue/cheeks/throat are REALLY having a tough time this week with, I presume, the radiation. Throw in yet another fine case of Thrush on top of those sores and it makes for a mouth that can hardly do anything.

Certainly no eating, but that's not new, but it's elevated to difficulties drinking just water, swallowing pills. Talking is almost impossible above a whisper and even that hurts my tongue to enunciate the words.

Jenny found me an old 6" x 8" or so dry erase board with it's own carrying case for markers and something to erase. I carry that around but it's still a pain. I went to my brother's yesterday and forgot it so my nephew loaned me his MagnaDoodle. It worked pretty well.

So, it's with this apprehension that I enter my final week of treatment. Tonight I get to take my first Chemo pill then tomorrow we're back down to K.U. for treatments.

It's getting late in the overall process so I've gotten lots of the expected question along the lines of "so how quick do you bounce back after treatments are over?"

I really don't know the answer to that. Hopefully we'll do a better job this week than last in staying on top on the nausea. Which would mean that piece should be relatively behind my pretty soon after treatment. But the fatigue, mouth pain, throat pain, skin pain, mucousy congestion, etc. could linger for quite some time. No idea when I'll be able to start eating again. Ron, who was in my same treatment but had started 6-weeks earlier -- so finished 6-weeks earlier -- got started eating slowly after a couple of weeks. But his wife cautioned to ease into it. Every Doctor/Nurse I talk to tells me that every patient is different. I believe it.

So really, we'll just have to see. My goal is to eat SOMETHING by mouth at Christmas dinner. It might just be a helping of Mashed Potatoes but I plan to eat something. That would be almost 3-weeks after my last treatment so I think that's a pretty conservative goal. Regardless, that would be an improvement over Thanksgiving where I got to visit with everyone while they ate, but no eating for myself.

Well, I'd better go get started with my Sunday. I've got a pile of pills waiting for me on the counter.