Mike's Treatment Diary

March 31st  End of week 2 Radiotherapy and end of the month 07:31 Note to self, give yourself an extra 15 minutes before you leave, Friday traffic isn't as heavy. I'm sitting in the car park doing my tounge exercises, today's session is at 08:15. Starting to get some soreness in the back right hand side of my throat now, this is only going to get worse so yesterday's meeting with the speech therapist discussed transitioning off muesli to porridge for breakfast and starting to take regular paracetamol. Heavier duty painkillers may well follow.

Thursday 30th March 08:48 Wating area for Radiotherapy. Session at 09:15. Throat is now beginning to feel a bit sore, the odd Halls Soother is managing that for now. I see stronger painkillers on the horizon.

Wednesday 29th March 08:50 Chemo day today, session starts at 09:30 and will last for several hours followed by Radiotherapy. Traffic was pretty good today aside from the usual crawl on the south end of the M11 past Loughton/Chigwell. 10:20 Dressing changed and first drip attached, Magnesium Sulphate solution. 13:20 Just finished the Cisplatin (chemo) drip, now I'm on a litre or so of Sodium Chloride solution. 17:00 I was done in the chemo day unit by about 14:00. Down to Radiotherapy for a 10-15 minute wait before I had the treatment. Back to the car and home by about 16:00. Could have been worse. Don't feel too bad thankfully. I have more steroids and antisickness tablets to take for the next couple of days on top of the usual. I also got a mouthwash that has a painkilling effect once my throat starts to properly hurt. There is a background discussion ongoing about whether I should have a feeding tube inserted directly through my skin into the stomach to enable me...

Tuesday 28th March 07:59 In the radiotherapy waiting area for today's session. All done and dusted by about 08:15, met one of the consultants and the dietician the went off to get a blood test ahead of chemo tomorrow which is at 09:30.

Monday 27th June Another covid free test, today's Radiotherapy appointment is at 17:35. 18:00 Another session done and dusted. Tomorrow has been rearranged to 08:00 now I don't have the lurgy.

Friday 24th March Breakfast:

Thursday 23rd March 19:50 As routine as its likely to get today. Covid test was +ve again, no surprise there. Appointment was 5pm today, thankfully I left plenty of time as I spent about 25 minutes stationary on the M11 as the junction with the M25 had two independent accidents on different slip roads.  I don't seem to have any major covid symptoms and I don't have any radiotherapy effects yet either, which is nice.