My sister has cancer of the tonsils and is now going thru treatment, chemo and radiation. She gets Cisplatin and it is a terrible treatment and about to get much worse as she is today just starting week 4 of a 7 week treatment. Already water tastes metallic, she has lost all sense of taste, nausea is building, and they tell her she is still in the "honeymoon" part of the treatment. Her doctor (a woman) told her the next 4 weeks were going to take her to Hell and back. Not good news for the next month!!
She has a food port directly into her stomach but can only put in about 2 oz at a time. She takes a Boost protein shake thru it to get calories. They don't care where the calories come from, she just needs 1500-1800 per day. She is still trying to eat to help keep her throat muscles working and her swallowing going as long as possible.
Right now the biggest problem is eating as all she experiences is texture and breads are totally gross and other foods not much better. She has been told her taste may take 2 months after treatment ends to return and she seriously doesn't know if she can handle that, but then she is aware she has no choice but to handle it.
So far no OM problems. I will be bringing her a strawberry shake tomorrow at noon while she is going thru her 2nd chemo treatment. Takes about 6 hours. Her radiation treatments are done with her head in a bolted down mask of some type so she doesn't move her head as the precision of the rays has to be precise. Her fear is that as the nausea increases she may gag while in the mask and not be able to move her head, thus choking to death. She has very specific instructions with the nurses as to hand signals meaning "get me out of this mask NOW!!!" in case she does start gagging.
On the good side, already her one doctor (she has one for the chemo and one for the radiation) has told her he can't feel the tumor anymore and these types of HVE tumors simply dissolve so it looks like the treatments are working. Can't be totally positive yet but it is a positive step and thus she is going to ask them why she needs 4 more weeks of radiation treatment. Her neck and upper chest/shoulder are already so burned that she is worried about skin cancer.
Will keep posting on her progress as I believe most here are interested in how OM comes about and what first hand experience with it is like. My sister is a rock, I can't imagine how a little prima donna could get thru this brutal treatment.
She has a food port directly into her stomach but can only put in about 2 oz at a time. She takes a Boost protein shake thru it to get calories. They don't care where the calories come from, she just needs 1500-1800 per day. She is still trying to eat to help keep her throat muscles working and her swallowing going as long as possible.
Right now the biggest problem is eating as all she experiences is texture and breads are totally gross and other foods not much better. She has been told her taste may take 2 months after treatment ends to return and she seriously doesn't know if she can handle that, but then she is aware she has no choice but to handle it.
So far no OM problems. I will be bringing her a strawberry shake tomorrow at noon while she is going thru her 2nd chemo treatment. Takes about 6 hours. Her radiation treatments are done with her head in a bolted down mask of some type so she doesn't move her head as the precision of the rays has to be precise. Her fear is that as the nausea increases she may gag while in the mask and not be able to move her head, thus choking to death. She has very specific instructions with the nurses as to hand signals meaning "get me out of this mask NOW!!!" in case she does start gagging.
On the good side, already her one doctor (she has one for the chemo and one for the radiation) has told her he can't feel the tumor anymore and these types of HVE tumors simply dissolve so it looks like the treatments are working. Can't be totally positive yet but it is a positive step and thus she is going to ask them why she needs 4 more weeks of radiation treatment. Her neck and upper chest/shoulder are already so burned that she is worried about skin cancer.
Will keep posting on her progress as I believe most here are interested in how OM comes about and what first hand experience with it is like. My sister is a rock, I can't imagine how a little prima donna could get thru this brutal treatment.
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