Hello , I am waiting an extra 2 weeks for a physical examination from my oncologist because she is on holidays , then I will have to wait 6 weeks for a scan. I am so used to waiting now though. I admit that I am on medication for anxiety however it is still one day at a time. I did find for me though that I do dwell on the worst outcome rather than hoping for the best and then hoping to be proved wrong. I think initial shock is worst though. I walked around for days in disbelief and shock. Probably all you can do is try to soldier on. ... View more

Thanks all. I seem to settled on strawberry milk. I went cold turkey from the PEG about 5 days ago. I am progressing through the yoghurts to settle on one with taste. Fried sausage and chicken wings etc and even mushrooms are a little tasty. Corn unfortunately little taste. The main issue is that with dry mouth and little saliva I need a liquid to wash down the food. I drove my car for first time in 4 months and although was very tired felt OK afterwards. I realise now that I am in remission , only question is full or partial. ... View more

I am experimenting with all kinds of foods now to see which if any have a taste. Macdonalds - no taste , baked beans no taste , tomato soup no taste. I suspect that bland foods will have no taste and maybe only foods with strong flavours will have a taste and a taste strong enough to overpower the existing taste in my mouth. I am sure I have little saliva which actually dries out completely during the night for a few hours. The roof of my mouth feels like it has almost completely healed. I have 4 weeks until I see the oncologist. I am literally hanging in there. ... View more

Hello , not sure is this helps but I recently completed 7 weeks of radiotherapy in the throat. I asked the radiotherapy nurses at the start if they had any tips on surviving this well. They said - drink water. As much as possible. It is easy to fall into the trap of reliance on the PEG or other tubes and not swallowing for days. My oncologist was always stressing to me to drink water even in a few sips per day just to not lose the ability to swallow which can become a major issue. I found motivation during the 7 weeks difficult. You feel like crap and have no urge to really do anything. Everything becomes a struggle. It is hard for family as just saying do this do that doesn't really work. I did find that once the oncologist told me I would be having radiotherapy I had no idea what that was until weeks later when I finally had the mask made and saw the machine. I learnt to just accept and go with the flow in a public hospital. Not much else you can do. Good luck. ... View more

Hello , everyone at age 23 whether they know it or not are faced with daily mortality. Of course you were faced with it in a much more traumatic manner than others but as others have said , at the end of the day you are alive , sounds like you have beaten cancer . I suspect that death for you for the rest of your life will be more immediate than others however there is nothing you can really do about this so my suggestion is live every day to the fullest. You have more understanding about the value of life than others. You can use this to you advantage ( like me who is waiting for sentence to be delivered ) as life is really no more than the present. My strategy is every day when I wake up to think - yes one more day and what can I achieve today. There is no point in thinking about dying which achieves nothing. There is only today. Good luck. ... View more

I hope so Jules , I am really suffering now at Day 14 of Day 35 mostly due to the severity of the chemo and the radiotherapy .I am on quite a few medications now due to the side-effects. Any remaining in the tumour wouldn't be so bad unlike if there was still a leftover lymph node which would need more chemo. At this stage best case scenario is back at work November which will exhaust almost all of my personal leave leaving no safety net for anything else. Looks like I will have a few extra Xmas presents this year at Peter Mac due to the gratitude you feel. ... View more