THE PROCESS

Since I had one of the smallest sites of cancer in my throat that my Doctor said he and I had ever been lucky enough to find I though the treatment would easy. I was wrong because the minimum treatment consisted of 35 radiation treatments 10 minutes long for five days a week. It also requires 3 chemotherapy treatments. As I go through them as healthy as I am I hail the patients I sit next to day after day for their courage in under going far more extensive treatments.

I learned early on that the throat is one of the most difficult areas to treat because its functions are so much more involved in eating, breathing, talking and moisturizing the mouth and throat. Radiation compromises all of these functions as the treatments go on. The throat becomes very sore and dry. A liquid diet of protein shakes and soft foods become mandatory. They are a welcomed relief after trying to eat and chew various foods and giving up because of the discomfort.

The Doctors have a litany of drugs and concoctions to solve the problems that arise as you go thru the process. Chemotherapy has not caused me any discomfort outside of being very tired on the forth day after treatment. Going the gym everyday for light weight training and cardio exercise along with all the anti-nausea drugs I believe has helped me through this.

I have just three weeks to go and my Doctors promised me there will not be a single cancer cell left in my body. I will be monitored every three months for the first year and then on a lesser time frame. I want to thank the hundreds of people who have come up to me of offer help if I needed it and have stopped by at random bringing chicken soup. I want the thank the other hundreds of cancer survivors who have identified themselves to me and thanked me for the articles in helping them realize they were not alone. They were seniors, adults my age, daughters and sons of my peers in two cases a 7 and 8 years olds who told me hang in there…it would get better.

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