Update From Robert

May 11, 2007
Friday

Hey everybody! Sorry it has been so long since my last log. Today is Friday May 11. I had my appointment with my radiation Dr. April 25, he told me everything looked like it is supposed to. I had begun to eat a little a week before my appointment but due to the swelling and soreness of my tongue I had to stop. He told me I would have to be eating 2 weeks on my own without my peg tube before I could have it removed and be showing a steady weight gain. My weight was 195 lbs. It is impossible to gain weight when your on nothing but liquid. He told me he really expected my weight to be a lot less than that so I actually was doing better that anticipated. He gave me another prescription for antibiotics for 7 days. My next appointment with him is May 16. Judy and I head to Dallas for my appointment with my surgeon Dr. Oxford May 8. The weekend before we leave I started eating again, it was a little difficult but at least I was trying. I went Saturday night and all day Sunday without using my tube, but when I got up Monday my neck was a little swollen. I thought well they told me it would swell from time to time because I don’t have any lymph nodes anymore so the fluids will have to find new routes out of my body. We leave Monday morning to go to Dallas and enjoy getting out and spending the night so it won’t be an all day drive Tuesday. We stop Monday in Sulphur Springs to eat lunch. We ate at Long John Silvers. I had 2 pieces of fish, 3 shrimp, 1 hush puppy, a few french fries, and a medium Root beer. It sure was good! I told Judy maybe tomorrow Dr. Oxford might o.k. for my tube to be taken out since I am eating pretty well. We stopped again in Greenville at TCBY and got ice cream, but then after that stop downhill from there. My neck started swelling and got hard as if I had swallowed a bag of concrete. It is really painful. So Monday night I had to go back to the tube what a disappointment. Got up Tuesday morning went to my appointment. Dr. Oxford said I had an infection in my neck, so he gave me a prescription for amoxicillin which is an antibiotic for 10 days. He said my tube may have to stay in for a little while longer. He showed Judy how my tongue was cooked by the radiation, it is still awfully sore. He said the radiation should be completely out of my body in another week or so. So today is May 11 and my neck is swollen and has fever in it and it really is painful. Hopefully the medicine will take care of it. Hope all you Mothers have a blessed Mothers Day !! Talk to ya’ll later.