Feelin' Stronger Every Day!

Again, like the Oliver heading, you can sing the tune while you're reading the heading.

With a week-and-a-half of eating under my belt, I'm feeling much improved in that same time. I'm not sure if it's because I've been eating again, because I'm getting a little exercise with my shoulder physical therapy, because I'm 2-months out from treatment and I should be getting better or what. But I really seem to have made a big jump recently in how I feel.

Eating itself is going better than anticipated. I continue experimenting with different foods to see what I can/can't swallow well and what does/doesn't taste good. My tastes are still pretty screwed up and several things that I've always liked or even loved just don't taste good to me now. Hopefully that's short lived.

I'm still sleepy at night and don't stay up late very well. And I've still got some throat issues that cause me sleeping problems, swallowing problems and others, but all that's improving and, overall, this last week or so has seen my biggest improvement by a long shot.

I turned half-a-century yesterday. 50-years-old now. We did very little to celebrate - my idea. Jenny really wanted to do something significant to mark the occasion but you don't plan things like that the week before the event. But three or four weeks ago when she probably needed to plan some kind of shindig, we had no idea how I was going to feel. In fact, even with my recent improvements I wouldn't have felt much like a party. So we'll try something in a month or so after I'm feeling better and just pretend it's my birthday.

Now, the real objective given the events of the last five months is to celebrate birthday number 55. When I celebrate that milestone I'll also be able to celebrate 5-years of cancer-free life which is the milestone for considering yourself "cured".

Now that I said above how much better I'm doing, one thing has really gotten worse during that same timeframe. Dry mouth. My mouth is a desert lately. At night the swelling in my throat and sinus area has turned me into a mouth breather while I sleep and, dang, it's amazing when I wake up. My tongue is STUCK to the top of my mouth and/or the back of my throat. Can hardly release it. During the day things aren't quite as bad but I really need to keep a water around. I've been using a gum and a gel product that help some but are hardly miracle cures. Just something I'm gonna have to get used to, I suppose.

A couple of tidbits before I close. 1) Sophie is awfully dang-darn cute and 2) Mizzou basketball boys whipped up on KU last night. Well, "whipped up" might be a little strong. They won with a shot at the buzzer after trailing for 39 of the 40 minutes in the game. But they won, that was the point!! Nice of them on my birthday, eh?