Holiday catch up

Hello everyone out in bloggerland! HOpe everyone had a great christmas and hope you all have a great new year!! I'm down here in southern Mississippi. Hangin out with the fam. Christmas was good. Though uncle did have a little goof with the potatoes. Instead of having mashed (which i was bummed out cause that wouldve been one thing i wouldn't have had a problem eating) he decided to make some augratin scalloped potato dish. Only at dinner time, they weren't cooked all the way. It took almost another 2 hours to cook them lol. So for a little midnight snack they were ready! Was very funny.
Lets see, i flew down here the saturday before xmas. Later that night i looked at my tongue as i felt like i was gettin alot of canker sores, turns out I now had Thrush. It's really kinda gross looking. Since there's not really any over the counter treatment for that, I waited till monday to call my radiation onc since he's the last doc I'd been seeing. And his lovely treatments are what was causing everything. Only, he wasn't in, still on vacation. But I did get ahold of another doc who called me back and I told him what grossness lied on my tongue and my throat was still burning like a madman. He called in a perscription of Niastatin. Some anitfungle, sugary cherry flavored slightly numbing concoction. But it's doin the trick. By wednesday my tongue was looking almost normal. Today itlooks completely normal yay! (oh it's sunday the 30th) Happy birthday mom! I still have to take it for another week. My throat is slowly getting better. Yesterday was the biggest improvement day and today feels better too. Still hard to swallow things. But I just chew chew chew and drink and swallow. It's a shame my tastebuds have gotten all knocked around too. I couldn't even enjoy pizza lastnight. It just tasted sooo awful. How many times are you gonna hear me say that!!! I love pizza! Was such a shame. But apparently when I was out at the store my parents were like, hmmm how many pieces do we save for her, how many can they have. Ha turns out they had it all except for one pieces with like 2 bites out of it. I'm really tired of this now. I'd love to eat like a regular person and swallow easily. I did got to a couple casino buffets and got soft stuff, ie mashed taters, mac N cheese, but it all tasted gross. Now I'm not sure if thats cuase it was my tastebuds or buffet food lol. I did manage some crab legs, which would've been great but they actually weren't very good in general.
Today is moms bday, big old 59, so we are taking her to a Japanese steak house that she loves, Saki's. It's really good. I hope my tastebuds like it. I love the hibachi chicken and vegetables. So yummy. And soft enough I think I'll be ok now!

I guess thats about all, catches everybody up. I fly back home on Jan 3. Oh if you got some extra prayers in ya, can you send some to my ma. She has to have a biopsy done make sure she's just got a benign breast cyst or tumor and nothin worse. She meets with the surgeon on the fourth. She just found this out friday before xmas and on teh 26th we went and she had a magnifying mamogram and a sonogram. So meet with the surgeon and then he'll schedule the biopsy.
Anywho that covers it. Have a happy and safe and healthy new year!!!

and one more "lovely" gift from radiation

Well well well, I now have one more gift from radiation. Something completely unexpected and rather annoying and upsetting. I woke up yesterday, hopped in the shower, was washin my hair and then looked at my hands to find hair all over them. Yep the back of my head is pretty much bald now. Unfortunately, I have to tilt my head back during radiation to keep my lower jaw out of the way, well, this has now put the back of my head in the field. It's now been zapped but good and those little follicles have all just fried up and let my hair go. Very sad since as of right now I only have 2 more treatments left, it was completely unexpected and the other spots that lost hair from chemo are finally all filling in and looking good. I guess the good thing is, from the front the hair looks good, its just at the back that looks pathetic. And its just hard as its come out pretty much all at once and not slowly.
I went and thought getting a haircut would help it, but not really. Just looks bald and splotchy. I wish she'd have actually listened when I said shave it off and blend the rest not just blend it down.
Throat is still messed up. The hardest part is swalloing the oxycodone pills in the morning. I try to wash them down with slimfast cause it's thick and coats them a little, and I cut them up in quarters.
Thanks Jessica for all the advise on the soft foods, it's much appreciated.
So far just swallowign even water is an icky experience. :(
Well today and tomorrow and then I'm done and hopefully things will improve quickly!!!!!

throats-a-fire

Well all the radiation is takin a toll on my throat, thats for sure! Now it feels like a code red triple alarm sever strep throat. The doc gave me some magic mouthwash ( a lovely mixture of maalox and lidocaine) taste gross. Numbed my mouth but did nothin for my throat (and yes i swallowed it too). So I rang up the doc today and said the magic just wasn't working. When I got to my radiation appointment he had a prescription for Percoset waiting for me. he said they would be little pills, which is good cause I have trouble swallowing my tiny little pill for my bloodpressure right now. I drop of the script to the pharmacy, go back an hour to get it only to find out that they actually didn't check to see if they had it when they told me it would be ready in half an hour. But they had sent the manager to a nearby location that had it. Of course nearby I think was like half an hour away. I waited probably an hour and he finaly got back. Nice he sent the mgr over to get it and not me. I get the pills home and they are oxycodone and acetametophin mix and the tablets are big!! Very sad....very very sad. But luckily nowhere did it say do not chew or crush or break, so I chopped them in quarters and swallowed them done, but they still hurt. I tried taking one in a spoonful of icecream. That really didn't work to well. It's been about an hour and a half since I took them. It's not as severe but it's still really sore to swallow. I dunno whats gonna happen tomorrow. If it's only supposed to get worse this week. But luckily this week is the last week! Hopefully xmas day I'll be good enough at least to eat mashed potatoes without a bunch of pain! ya know when you can't eat something all of a sudden is when you really want it lol
Anyone watch Clash of the Choirs??? I'd have to say Patti LaBelles choir was the best, or well my favorite, Michael Boltons choir was my least favorite. Seriously why turn Livin On A Prayer into a big ole choir piece...just wierd.
Anywhooooooo, hope all are having a good start to their week!

swim swim swim

Caught The Little Mermaid lastnight at the Lunt-Fontaine theater. I'd say I'd give a 7 1/2-8 out of 10, 10 being the best. I felt they kind of scimped on some effects that really wouldve given a little bit more of a wow factor. It was cute and fun. And I love Sherie Rene Scott!! Vocally that woman is amazing with a breath support that can go on for days and days and days! There are quite a few new songs added to mix. A lovely quartet in act 2. Norm Lewis, King Triton, gotta love his voice too. so warm and melty and yummy! I notice not really any mermen in the mix. Lots of other fish and sea life, but really if Ariel is supposed to fall in love with a merman, they couldve at least showed one lol. Or maybe I just missed him.
It's fun and Poor Unfortunate Souls...great ending to it!That alone was worth the price. So there's my review.
Saw the rad.onc. today, everythign is coming along smoothly. I'm lining up under their machines very nicely so i'm gettin zapped in all teh right places. I'm not majorly bombarded by sideffects which is good. I did get some magic mouthwash today. I'll take a swig before bed as that seems to be the worse time for me.
Got a Holiday Party at work tomorrow yay!!
ciao for now!

just a quickie

Hello just droppin a quickie here. Finished week one of radiation. In the middle of week two. It is now getting hard to swallow, or well more of I'm swallowing harder if that makes sense. Kind of the hard swallow feeling you get at the beginning of a cold when your throat gets scratchy and kinda sore and saliva just feels gross and thick and you really have to work at swallowing. ..anyone? no, just me, oh well.
Other than that, just alittle more sleepy and the waits on mondays and tuesdays are crazy. I had to wait an hour and half on monday after my time to finally get in and yesterday was 2 hours. But yesterday their servers crashed so I can understand being delayed because of that. But normally, just cuase they have new patients it completely throws everything else off. I just sit and basically nap on and off in the waiting room. But i'm not the only one. One guy was snoring lastnight!
Goin to see The Little Mermaid tonight! Yay I'm excited!! Saw Young Frankenstein last friday. Very fun! Andrea Martin...hilarious!!!! Got to see some buds from Michigan who came to town to visit.That was nice, love seein my friends!
ok thats about all, ciao and happy holidays!

Anyone need a glowstick?

Today I officially started radiation. Other then waiting in the womens waiting area (first you wait to be called inside, then you go to seperate men/women rooms once they call you and then change into a robe and then wait some more in the seperate waiting rooms till someone comes and gets you). I waiting for what felt like forever! Finally I was called in. They had to take another film or two and then the radiation started. Really, it was like one long xray and then one short one. Then the machine moved around to under the table I was laying on and then another zap like a long xray and then a short one. Then i was all done.
The longest part of it all is making sure my little dot tattoos are lining up how they should and making sure my chin is lifted (or well my head is tilting back as far as it can so my chin gets out of the way) then they taped it all up so it wouldn't move. Not the most comfortable position but easily maintainable for waht 5 minutes at the most.
Once a week I'll go and visit the nurses there and fill them in if I have any side effects. They will also do blood work every Thursday and I'll chat with the doc every Thursday.
After "rads" today I went over to my buddy Josh's apt. Then we went and saw his partner Asi do his magic at Monday Night Magic . I have to say it was definetly a fun time. Asi is a great magician. Keep the name in mind in the magic world Asi Wind! The headliner, John Graham, great job as well. Both were so funny and entertaining. The whole evening was fun and fun magicians. If you like magic and just want a fun evening I highly recommend it. Every Monday is different, has different performers. Just something to be aware of.

So now that it's like 12:30AM I am off to bed! Took forever for a subway to come tonight. Geez sometimes they are such a pain! lol.
Happy first week of December!
xo