THE GROUNDHOG and THE FENCER (Part 1)

The GROUNDHOG... It is yet another day before I go to the doctor and it is yet again that I'm doing a new journal entry.....this time a direct entry to my revised blog sight. Ooohhhhh, Ahhhhhhh.....!!! Before you think I'm social media savvy, please know that I am still the only person under retirement age without a Facebook page. My Mother-in-Law has a Facebook page, but yet I still do not. Now if my dad ever got a Facebook page (for those of you that don't know my dad, this is very funny I promise you!) Sorry I digress........ As usual, at least for me, so much has happened since I last visited with all of you. First about tomorrow, I don't just have 1 doctor's appointment or even 2 for that matter.....I've got 3 doctors (kind of) appointments, none with any of the cancer docs. I'm already putting Obamacare to good use. Tomorrow's schedule: 8:00am Rheumatologist @ UPenn 2:00pm Physical Therapy (Lovely Lakewood, NJ) 3:00pm Cardiologist (Making sure I can survive all this!) The Rheumatologist is an appointment that has been scheduled since in the hospital during my 2nd surgery. You'll recall---and surely I cannot forget---when I had the MAJOR gout blowup. The Cardiologist is just my regular quarterly appointment to monitor my high BP, but Ive got much more to discuss tomorrow than just high BP. The Physical Therapy sessions I started last week. My surgeon warned me prior to the surgeries that it would be very likely that I would develop shoulder weakness after the neck dissection. The trauma to the nerves in the neck area and shoulder have rendered my right shoulder pretty useless. When you feel discomfort picking up your coffee mug, tossing poker chips or even typing like now, it is time for some therapy. My baseline testing last week confirmed that for sure as my right shoulder is far behind my left and has actually started to get atrophied in certain parts. So starting tomorrow it is 3 appointments/week until I can get back to 100%. This is gonna coincide with my other routine to keep me very, very busy. Oh yeah, speaking of that, back to THE GROUNDHOG part......... Being from Western Pennsylvania the Groundhog was always a big deal on February 2nd every year. But for me, my day this year came not on February 2nd, but August 2nd. It was that day that I wrote last in my journal and also the day of my consultation with the Radiation Oncologist. Well he saw my shadow that day but instead of 6 more weeks of winter, I get to go through 6 weeks of radiation. My start date is next Monday August 30th---each week Monday-Friday---for 6 weeks and before you may ask the question, I am going to do the radiation at UPenn and go back and forth each day. Like my surgeon Dr. Weinstein, I got a very good initial feeling and a felt a good sense of trust with my Radiation Oncologist, Dr. Lin. Just like my surgeon, I wanted a good chemistry to happen and it did, especially since we are gonna spend 6 weeks together. Plus he went Michigan so my niece Nicole should be pleased. With that said, I'm sure hoping Dr. Lin doesn't perform as poorly as Rich Rodriguez has at Michigan or I'm in BIG trouble! Well Dr. Lin quickly dashed any glimmer of hope I had of avoiding radiation. VERY quickly. Very simply...the tumor on my neck has just gotten too large (reminder....scanned at 2.5cm but actually 4.2cm at removal) and for a tumor that large, radiation is pretty much a mandatory part of treatment. The doctor feels that microscopic particles could be present and undetected for now, having escaped the enlarged, encapsulated tumor and this would cause problems down the road. Now.....if the tumor was 2.5cm as originally thought, I could be sitting here today not preparing for this 6 weeks of absolute fun I am about to embark upon. But again, it was too large---which frankly is not easy to type---and thus to radiation I must go. So they will be fully treating the right side of my neck and also to a lesser degree doing the left side of my neck as well. Why the left side? This is where undetected particles could drift to and the doctor wants to cover all bases. The good news? My doctor is so satisfied with the results, margins and testing in and around the area of the tonsil tumor that he feels full confident that this area is CLEAN and needs no radiation. This to me is GREAT news as not only am I batting .500 in ridding myself of the tumors of cancer poison, it also allows me to avoid radiation in an area that would cause some more SERIOUS side effects. Oh yeah, the side effects. To that degree I should be OK---meaning mostly normal lifestyle for the first 2 weeks of radiation. The heavier effects will be present in Weeks 3 thru 6. What side effects am I in for??? The WORST of all will be dry mouth as a result of blasting my salivary glands. This will be with me for probably at least a year with the very real possibility that I could deal with this for my entire lifetime. So while I'll not only have to carry a bottle of Poland Spring around with me everywhere, the lack of natural saliva will also render some foods very difficult to eat without drinking water along with it. Items that require a good deal of chewing---steak e.g.---will be an adventure. What other temporary fun is ahead of me???......Mouth and throat sores, lack of appetite, swallowing....difficulty at best, not being able to at worst, the feelings of "sunburn" inside my mouth, dryness/leathery type of skin on my neck, overall fatigue......need I go on??? Probably throw in some days of complacency and lack of motivation for good measure as well. BUT....BUT....it's only 6 weeks---30 sessions out of what I'm hopeful to be a long life ahead. An easy trade-off for me. Like I wrote in an earlier entry, I knew all of this going in and the Good Lord and I already had these discussions on what I'd trade or give up or deal with to have him give me the physical, mental and emotional power to heal. Now I'm gonna live up to my end of the bargain. Take the treatment, deal with it and not complain. As I'm very well known for saying....."it is what it is".....and I just gotta suck it up and deal with it. Case closed. So I put daily Radiation along with 3 days/week of Physical Therapy and I'm back to my full-time job again, that of being a cancer patient. And as it was while I was in the hospital, I'm gonna listen and do as I'm told to be the best patient I can be. Until Part 2 when I elaborate more about "THE FENCER", The Groundhog for now goes back into hiding...... Best Regards and God Bless, David D