Recovery Slow As Promised

I’ve been blessed with remarkable health during my lifetime. Before this bout with cancer, I had not missed work because of sickness in over ten years. When I do catch a stomach flu, its often gone in less than 12 hours. When heath professionals said my recovery from the chemo and radiation would be measured in week and months, not days, I knew my patience would be tested. In fact, recovery of some of my oral cavity functions could take up to a year.

So how am I doing, now that I’m a full five days away from my last day of treatment? I’ve begun to notice a subtle improvement in the blisters and burns inside of my mouth. Yippee! My radiation burns on my neck have worsened as the top layer of skin has left pink, raw new skin exposed. Ouch! This, I’m told will improve over the next week or so. I’m still very fatigued and sleeping about 14 hours a day. On a very positive note, a speech therapist from our church visited New Years eve. He works regularly with head and neck cancer patients. He said my swelling and oral function are where most patients are at three weeks post-treatment. So, I must be thankful my body tolerated radiation as well as it did.

I’ve begun to put on some weight, even though I’m still receiving all of my nutrition in liquid form through my feeding tube. To give myself a chance of regaining weight in the best possible way, I began very light exercise this week. On Monday, I walked a half mile on the treadmill and did a few arm curls. Today, I walked seven tenths of a mile and completed some arm curls. I never though it was possible to be winded and break a sweat walking just a half mile! I guess that is a sign of just how weak I am. Slowly but surely I hope to regain my strength.

I mentioned last week Elliott’s truck was totaled in a wreck. In the past, we would establish “performance standards” Elliott had to meet before we would step in to make him whole. Time will tell if our decision was best, but Theresa and I decided to teach Elliott about grace through this incident by replacing his truck today. We describe grace as something freely given to someone that is not deserved. In response to receiving something through grace, one is motivated by thankfulness to honor the giver through respect and obedience. This is how we respond to our divine blessings and the gift of salvation. We pray this situation will reinforce this truth with Elliott.

Talk with you soon!