Going the Distance

We had hoped that our daily trips to the hospital for radiation would be offset by shorter chemo sessions.  So far, it seems we were mistaken.

 We arrived at the hospital at 7:30 AM today and got home at 5:30 PM.  In between...

1.  We learned the correct techniques for the swallowing and jaw exercises.   Ernie must do these 3X to 5X per day.  The speech pathologist compared the pre-radiation jaw muscles to raw meat (soft & pliable) and the post-radiation muscles to cooked meat (tough and rubbery).  Right now he can open his mouth fully, but if he doesn't do the exercises, his jaw could be cooked closed and the process can not be reversed.  Not a very appetizing analogy, but quite effective.  He did the exercises as soon as we got home.

2.  Ernie had his 2nd of 27 radiation treatments.  Only 25 to go!

3.  We met with the Radiologist Oncologist.  He scoped Ernie--which he will do once per week.  (Ernie was thrilled to learn this.)  Although he found nothing concerning yet, he prescribed some nerve blocking pain killers that he wants Ernie to start taking to block the pain before it starts.  The pain comes from mouth sores and burned skin in the throat.  He and his nurse both said that these usually start to manifest themselves around the 11 treatment mark. 

4. Ernie had his weekly chemo treatment.  As usual, we had to wait 3 hours for a spot to open up.  The nurses said they will try to get him in faster in the coming weeks.  Unfortunately, the nurses forgot and gave him the full dose of Benadryl (he prefers a half dose) so he is struggling to stay awake right now. 

Normally we will see the Radiologist Oncologist on Thursday so we hope that next Tuesday will be a shorter day.  Right now we are psyching ourselves up for our 8 AM radiation treatment tomorrow.