Well, Campers, activity has been slow. . . I'm getting a little better day by day, but still not ready to dance in the streets. My next 'big' day will be May 12, when I have a marathon session at Moffitt including blood work, a swallow study, a chest x-ray, and an appointment with my medical oncologist. With any luck, they will also remove the feeding tube then as I have not used it for over two months now.
I've been back to work for five weeks, working half days. My routine is pretty much work from 8:30 to 12:30, get home about 1:00 PM, check email, and then take a 2-hour nap. Work is going well, After meeting some of the dozen or so new people who started there while I was out and figuring out the new server configurations, it was almost like I had never left. Same desk and everything. . .
And I've been attending two support groups, a monthly group for head and neck cancers and a weekly group for general cancer patients. As I've written in these pages before, I sort of feel funny going to support groups, as in the weekly group, I'm the one who's the best off. I have no active disease nor am I actively being treated for anything. Survivor guilt often kicks in, but I have been assured by the group facilitator that people like me are a valuable part of support groups as far as sharing my experiences and sort of being the 'after' photo. This is by no means to say that I'm totally cured - far from it - but I am a goodly way down the path to as recovered as I'll ever be.
I still get beastly tired and have a mucous block in my throat that still makes swallowing anything of any substance difficult. So, I am still on the diet of thickened liquids and pureed foods. And frankly, it's getting old. I am finding myself actually hungry these days and look covetously on the 'real' foods that others are eating. Soon, I tell myself, soon. The bright side that I've lost about 35 pounds, all of which I could afford to lose. Now, I would not recommend my weight-loss program to anyone else, but it was wickedly effective. . .
I will continue to post updates as I can, but for now, the adage 'No news is good news; rings true.
Peace and Love!!
Joe
