Today we learned that one of the side effects of radiation is oral thrush--"painful white lesions" that appeared on Ernie's tongue. Just what he needed. Of course, there is a pill for that. Luckily Ernie has the super deluxe pill case with 4 different times slots for each of the 7 days of the week. I have lost track of his meds by now so both of us carry a list with us at all times. Keeping it up to date is the difficult part.
We also tried out the feeding tube under the watchful eye of the dietitian. A home health care company will deliver a 30 day supply of "osmolite" plus our very own pole hanger to hang the bags of "food". Eating solid food is fast becoming too painful. We are supposed to gradually introduce the osmolite as needed to make up the calories Ernie can't take by mouth. As long as he can keep swallowing liquids, his swallowing muscles will not deteriorate.
To add to the pill count, Ernie was instructed to take his Oxycontin every 4 hours for the pain. He has been resisting this for fear of becoming addicted but the folks at JH assured him that they would not let that happen. I am very happy as I hate seeing him suffer. He reminded me today that at our first meeting at Johns Hopkins, we were told "there will be pain, but in 6 months you will forget that you even had cancer." We are counting on it.
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