Mike's Treatment Diary

Tuesday 23rd May 14:15 All being well this should be my last visit to the North Middlesex for a while. I've got a review with my oncologist which should result in me being discharged back to my local trust. Stuff is actually beginning to taste as it should, I'm still struggling with chocolate - that seems to taste like a spoonful of cocoa powder. I had a couple of boiled eggs at dinner time which were exactly like boiled eggs. Swallowing is now pretty painless, the only part of my mouth that is still sore is the underneath of my tongue on the right hand side near the back. This is on the side that the lesion was on so I'm assuming got the most concentrated x-rays during radiotherapy.

Friday 23rd May 09:00   Finally, a cup of tea that tastes like tea, unlike the cup that Arthur Dent had made for him by the Nutrimatics Drinks Dispenser of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation* aboard the Heart of Gold which produced a liquid "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea". (RIP Douglas Adams, taken on 11th May 2001 far too soon). My taste appears to be slowly returning, I woke up this morning with much less pain so the incremental improvements continue.  Still worn out by early afternoon, but as I continue to eat more normally I should get over that. * The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation company motto is " Share and Enjoy ." This is widely adaptable, from synthesised drinks to the company of a robot, or "Your plastic pal who's fun to be with", as their robots are described as by the aforementioned Marketing Department. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  describes the Marketing Department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporat...

16th May 22:00 Had a phone appointment today with my oncologist, speech therapist and dietician. I've stabilised my weight although overall I've lost about 2 stone. I'm doing as they expect, I still have taste issues but day by day I'm seeing incremental improvements in the pain I'm getting. I've noticed that in the mornings I'm able to swallow without much pain at all, this deteriorates during the day as I get tired but I'm also supposed to be removing the morphine from my pain management regime.

Wednesday 10th May 08:00 I went back to the North Mid yesterday to see the oncologist, the speech therapist and the dietician. I'm doing OK, I still need to eat more. I won't get another PET scan until three months after treatment and I'm not to expect a full recovery at least six months in, may take a year depending on the individual.  I am back to eating what I was in about week 4 of treatment, I do still need to use the supplementary shakes until I can properly chew and eat normally though.

Sunday 7th May 09:40 The last 24 hours seem to have been an ongoing improvement. The pain is still very much there but I am able to reduce it to be able to eat a bit more. I've had a bowl of porridge this morning, and should be able to tuck into some trifle Julie made for me later.  I had a tin of scotch broth yesterday too, so now I need to try a few things for taste to see what I could have a go at.

Star Wars Day 19:30 After a couple of days feeling really sorry for myself, I've got a higher grade morphine patch and the nod to go up to 7.5mg on the oral morphine (alongside the 4 cocodamols a day).  Today this meant I was able to get 4 of the nutrition shakes in me, which is better than previous. I'd hesitate to say this is a corner turned but if the same happens tomorrow I shall be very happy.

Tuesday 2nd May 14:00 Back in the North Middlesex for the first post-treatment assessments.  The weekend wasn't great, as expected, and this week is destined to also be rubbish according to the four specialists I've seen this afternoon. Pain management is the key to me being able to ingest enough nutrients to optimise my healing but currently every swallowing action is excruciating. I'm waiting for the pharmacy to process my latest controlled drugs prescription, more morphine, so I can increase each individual dose.