Trending Upward
To my pleasant surprise, I believe I reached a nadir this past week, and have started to see an upward trend in my recovery. The rate of change in both directions has been faster than I would have expected. While I'm not back to my recent peak, I'm not far away and hope to surpass it later this week.
The chemo treatments are on 28 day cycles, so I'm at the halfway point now. The side effects should continue to improve. Unlike with the concurrent chemo and radiation, I don't think the effects are cumulative for this treatment phase, as there is enough recovery time between infusions that I could feel nearly normal. At least that's the hope I'll carry.
That being said, the one area where the recovery lags is follicular growth. It doesn't seem like my hair is growing much on top, and the hair at the back of my head is up about 2-3 inches from where it normally is. Any dreams of long flowing locks have been extinguished, again. I only need to shave 1-2x a week and that's just to keep sides symmetrical, rather to remove any excess growth. I just realized this week that I have no nose hairs. That shouldn't come as a surprise since there was so much radiation targeted right around that area. Perhaps that is why I've been so sensitive to certain smells, particularly smoke, recently.
Hair is growing slowly, so the loss from radiation still hasn't come back
After a further decline, the return of my appetite and diet has been quite strong. As expected, I did have to go back to a liquid diet for a few days (Mon-Thu, days 7-10 after start of infusion). I didn't much of an appetite, so it was all about efficient eating and trying to get as many calories and as much water as I could with the least effort. It was a consistent diet of Boost VHC mixed with Benecalorie, with an occasional avocado-banana milk smoothie or milkshake for more flavor. At least I could swallow without discomfort - the issue was that I didn't want to put anything in my mouth as the sores were painful. In fact, they were painful enough that I started taking Norco (painkiller), Gelclair and the numbing lidocaine rinse again. The Sonicare caused more pain, and I had to switch toothpaste twice (now using Biotene) to find one that wouldn't cause as much irritation. I was also having trouble speaking clearly, as my mouth felt swollen and the saliva became thick and frothy. Instead of helping to relieve dry mouth, sparkling water caused a burning sensation. Finally, my lips would be cracked and bloody each morning.
Thankfully, that all started to change on Friday (day 11). The sores have started to heal, so I could start eating solid foods again. The change has been rapid, from trouble finishing a hard boiled egg on Friday to eating a Japanese beef curry for dinner on Monday. So fast that my replenished Boost and Benecalorie boxes sit unopened. I started eating soups, moved on to congee then to noodles. The progression from eating very slowly (literally 1-2 macaroni at a time) to nearly finishing stir fried noodles with thinly sliced beef and shrimp was better than I expected. I'm capable of eating tender meats, thus we made the Japanese beef curry (from an Amy + Jacky recipe). This is one of of our favorite recipes for the Instant Pot, and the smell of caramelized onions and butter, along with browned meat adds a nice aroma to the condo as well.
For some reason, I had a craving for noodles, both char kway teow and mee goreng. Both are Singaporean hawker center favorites. Getting to an authentic stall is not possible now, so instead I settled for (and still craved) Indomie instant mee goreng. These packets cost $0.40 or so, but still have a hold on me. I was hoping that my spice sensitivity would progress, so I even added half the samba spice sauce into the mix. That was a mistake, as my nose started running almost immediately and my mouth required several glasses of milk to cool down. I got more calories than expected that meal!
I craved these and watched way too many Youtube videos about these noodles
Besides the continued hypersensitivity to spice (acid is getting a little better), sweetness and chocolate remain areas where I can't taste like before. I've saved some favorite bars (e.g. Pierre Herme) for now, hoping that I can appreciate them better later. In the meantime, I've tried eating some Kit Kats. Sadly, for now, I'm still missing the sweetness. There is more of a chalky texture to the wafer than I'd like.
Being able to eat means that I don't have to be as sedentary. It's hard to motivate to be active or workout when I was already losing weight (nearly got below 150 lbs last week, almost 30 lbs off from my start) and running a caloric deficit. We went out to Taste of Greektown with friends on Saturday night, so while I couldn't partake in grilled meats or anything with lots of lemon, at least the idea of eating that isn't so farfetched as a week ago.
With friends at Taste of Greektown
I'm looking forward to the next two weeks as the recovery continues. My energy has been pretty close to normal (I can sleep through the night); I've not been hit by the bone pain side effect of neulasta; I'm not taking any medications; and my tastes continues to improve. Mentally, it's been positive to feel like I can get back to enjoying and doing things that I used to before. That even includes watching (finally) an Arsenal victory this past weekend.