Rough Week

Last weekend my mouth went from dry to painfully sore. All of a sudden my saliva glands started working over time and I developed terrible white sores in my mouth. After doing some research online, I thought it might be thrush. Since I had been saliva-less for the past two weeks, I thought it would make sense that some bacteria may have taken root in my oral cavity. As the soreness and symptoms increased Sunday night, I decided it would be a good idea to alert my doctor. So Monday morning I arrived at my appointment early and requested to see the doctor. He told me it wasn't thrush, just a side effect from the radiation. There was nothing he could do other than give me pain medication. I left his office very frustrated and upset. The pain was one thing, but to top it off, I couldn't eat because of it. How was I supposed to go through another week and a half of this pain?

After seriously weighing the pros and cons of quitting radiation treatment early, I decided that it is not in my character to quit anything and that I would continue the treatment. Needless to say, this week has been close to torturous with my inability to consume anything other than milk and mashed potatoes and the sores in my mouth still raging.

On Friday, I was prepared to tackle the 15th treatment, but after waiting for 30 minutes, a radiation therapist came out and informed us that the machine was down. Weird. I didn't think a machine that important to so many people was allowed to take a day off. So now I have three treatments left. Monday.Tuesday.Wednesday. I can do this. Pain and hunger are both relative, right?