catching everyone up

 This blog is being written at our friends' request so they can keep track of Don's progress without having to call all the time to check in.  This will save me lots of time fielding calls from all of Don's fans, as they reminded me.  It certainly makes it easier not to repeat the same stories over again.  So here we go.

For those of you who are just coming into the story, I'll give some background.  Just before Christmas Don was diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer.  I'll give you the link for the medical info:  link to oropharyngeal cancer info.  First thing to know - it is totally treatable.  That is all I was interested in hearing at the beginning.  

As some of you have experienced, when you get the phone call that the Dr says "cancer" you don't hear anything else he says.  So you need to call back to find out what the deal is.  The radiation oncologyst said that it is totally curable but the treatment is terrible.  So that is what we have to look forward to.  

There were some preliminary steps to this before the radiation and chemo start.  First there was a feeding tube that had to be inserted in Don's stomach in case the treatment made him unable to swallow.  The Dr said that it isn't always necessary but you don't want to be doing it in the middle of treatment if his throat gets too sore to swallow.  Not pleasant to be looking a bit like a pull toy that goes "ouch" when you pull at the tube.  

Next was some dental surgery to remove teeth that would be affected by the radiation.  that was a tough one for Don but you can't tell the difference when you look at him, so that's good.  I think he thought he was going to be taking on the hillbilly look, but no.  So besides the obvious discomfort of having that done, so far so good.  But with sore gums he is getting pretty sick of soup.

The latest insult was that they had to design a "mask" for the radiation, to keep it pinpointed in the same places, which is both sides of Don's neck.  He said that it was the worst experience because they clamp this thing to your head and neck to mold it into place.  He said it was really claustrophobic.  They would have had to invent something new for me if I had to do it because I would have completely freaked out.  

So this coming week we are on to the real stuff - chemo and radiation on Tuesday.  The chemo treatment will happen three times - once at the beginning, once in the middle and again at the end.  the radiation process is supposed to run about 6 weeks and Don has to go in every day for about 10 minutes to have it done.  5 days a week.  The chemo process is 7 hours each time and they say to bring things to do and eat because you are just sitting in the chair with the TV on, and you know what daytime TV can be like!  Our friends are volunteering to go entertain during that period.  Each has their own idea of what is entertaining - Mike Brumley had volunteered to go in this first time and read Don the tax codes....

So that is what is happening so far.  We have some up days and some down days when Don sees this all stretching out before him.  But I guess you can't get it overwith until you start it.  I know, easy for me to say...