Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Over the last week I have been dealing with a rash? or outbreak? hard to describe in a single word. They look like a mix between a bite and a zit...if you've ever had them, closer to chiggers but bigger. They were all over my body with my legs and stomach getting the worst of it but I even had them in the palms of my hands. They burned and itched and were about to drive me insane. Called the doc and he prescribed a gel for me to put on them topically; we had already tried everything we had in prescribed and over the counter topicals on them and nothing help to heal them or stop the burning and itching. Ended up getting an appointment with the doc to look at them and see what was going on. He wasn't sure what it was, a lasting post reaction to the steroids or herpes or some other things I don't remember! He prescribed tetracycline and valtrex for me to take and thankfully it has stopped the outbreak and is healing the bumps. Thank God!

I have been eating for a full week now and am maintaining my weight which is what I need to do to get the tube out and return back to work. I can't taste everything all the way yet; most things only at about 40% of what I remember them to be. I also don't have my full saliva back yet either; so bread and other dry things are very difficult at this point. I do have some saliva as I don't need to carry a water bottle to keep my mouth moist or have to take a sip to swallow my food (except really dry foods). It seems that I am getting a little bit more taste and saliva over the past week. It is just a matter of time to get them both back.

My burns (on the neck) are healing very well and quickly. They are no longer the angry red color but have faded to a lighter red and the new skin has come in. I was able to wear a normal T-shirt yesterday for the first time since the radiation therapy cause the burns on my neck back in February! It felt strange to have something touching my neck but it was nice to have some normalcy again. We are only having to put burn cream on my neck twice a day. My throat has healed from the burn and is pain free at this point.

We had an appointment with the radiation doc last week and he felt I was doing very well. He did feel my neck to see if he could feel Earl (I have done this as well as the neck could tolerate it) and neither one of us could find it! I have an appointment with the ENT this Friday and he will look down my throat with the fiber optics to take a look for Bill. Hopefully he will not see any sign of him. Earl was the larger of the two masses and he is gone so Bill should be gone as well.