@Janine3220    thanks again for your wonderful reply with all that valuable information!  I truly appreciate it.   The good news is I have been exercising since as soon as my treatment ended.  I started ballroom dancing classes - started with one a week and now I do six a week 🙂  Plus extra workouts 4 times a week.  Plus I walk my dog for 30 mins to 1 hour every day.   My friends can't believe it - I have more energy than they do 🙂  ha ha    I do have some stuff for dry mouth and try to keep sipping water regularly as well and I have a dentist appointment booked for Tuesday - my dentist has me on a six monthly plan.  I started using one of those redlight/infrared light therapy lamps a few weeks ago and now I have saliva coming back... slowly but surely... so I can vouch for those lamps but you have to wait until you have the all clear before using them...    My throat burned today too which was unfortunate because I was at a picnic and it hurt to eat so I nibbled a bit and that was it.  Then it passed and by this evening I was okay to eat again.  I hate when that happens and didn't realise it would still have burning moments months later...  is that normal too?   Ha - funny question... nothing is normal for us anymore, is it!  🙂 ... View more

@Alishan Wow... your post here is like one I made months ago... I just had and beat head and neck cancer. My follow up scan was a month ago and I got the all clear. But like you, I also had no family and went through it on my own, even driving myself to/from appointments and treatments. I only entrusted 2 close friends to the truth - 1 was also a naturopath who helped me, and the other friend came with me when i had to drive into the city and I was worried how I'd go coming home in peak traffic. I think life would have been a lot easier for me if I'd had someone to help with cooking, shopping and housework and gardening - but I didn't and I didn't want to burden my friend with that either so I didn't ask. But I also knew I was strong enough to do it - not as well as I usually did it or as often, but it got done - except the garden which is now overrun with weeds and winter grass and I'm trying to pull out a bit each day. What I'm discovering now in this journey is people think once you have had/beaten cancer that its back to life as normal. They have no idea of the price we pay for our life... the bits that are damaged and no longer work - like ending up with lymphedema, no saliva (drymouth), no taste, and continued pain from the radiation. You have to breathe AND eat through your mouth/throat area and when that takes a walloping, your entire existence is affected... and they don't tell you that at the beginning. And people don't understand that while I may have beaten the cancer, I am now battling other things, side effects, some of which I may have forever, some for months, and some for who knows how long and may not come back fully if they do. So, think ahead because even when you finish treatment, you will have a whole lot of other challenges possibly and new reactions from people who think you will go back to who you were beforehand... and you'll find out why we just smile at them because there is no way you could possibly explain it all and not come across as whingeing or something pathetic... so we all just say nothing and smile... You will meet some wonderfully, supportive people on this forum, some who will become good friends. I met a great person in Victoria through the forum and he was the greatest support and is still what I consider to be a very good friend. Who needs family when you've got the forum 🙂 Good luck! xxx ... View more

I love your replies to posts xxx 🙂 Donna ... View more

Hi Denise,  wow... you have a lot on your plate right now... good luck with everything, your move included... and especially with your treatment.   I had my follow up scan a couple of weeks ago and got the all clear and will be checked every 3 months by my ENT specialist and oncologist, taking turns... I actually only have to see them every 6 months but they're booking me so it works out I see one of them every 3 months...   My biggest problem is pain still... I'm off painkillers and just relying on Panadol Osteo because its slow release but I have to remember to take some in time for dinner or I can't eat... great diet though!  Not being able to eat guarantees weight loss ha ha 🙂   Take care of yourself ... and I wont say those words to you... unless you've been through it yourself, the best imagination in the world cannot help you I've found... so friends and family who haven't personally battled the big C, really have no idea so just have to cut them some slack because they struggle to find the right things to say...  AND if they do say something that annoys you, I think they'd want you to tell them... 🙂   PS:  I hated it when people said that too!   xxx ... View more

@Janine3220   Thanks Janine... love your reply and I happen to agree with you.  I learned the same things but not via osteo... but via serious vaccine injury.  Until it happened to myself AND then one almost killed my daughter and she's now on the official Australian gov TGA vaccine injury register, I believed the propoganda they push about vaccines... but my experiences and what our states top immunologist told me at the time blew my mind... and I now know why Drs and nurses are forbidden to speak out about it publicly in this country or risk losing their careers.  Its disgustingly evil.  Anyhow...   I am really well aware of the limitations on all forms of medical and health care providers and always keep my own eyes open and tend to now try and do my own research.  If I got paid for every time I, little uneducated in the medical realms me, actually educated a Doctor on something they did not know about, I might be able to retire now 🙂   Sadly they seem to rely just on the marketing lies pharmaceutical companies spin on them and they no longer seek to cure or mend people - just mask their symptoms and get their rewards for doing so...   I'm really lucky that I have found a great local clinic where 99% of the doctors are very aware of all the above and who themselves offer up natural treatments for long term gain and who don't push you know whats because they know the truth...    And i will never have the Covid jab either... not knowing the numbers of seriously injured and dying from it.  Apart from the fact I personally know 5 people who are suffering right now just within days/weeks of their Covid jab and undergoing tests to find out whats wrong with them  - we all know whats wrong with them 😞  But the damage is done now...   I used to know 6... but one of them died mysteriously in their sleep and their family is still fighting about it because the coroner is trying to tell them it wasn't the jab BUT he doesn't know what it was so they've just put the death down to unknown causes.  Unknown my foot!  He was perfectly healthy and fine until he had that jab... 😞   Anyhow, sorry for waffling... just wanted to thank you for your indepth and informative responses!   xxx D     ... View more

@Janine3220    thanks for that awesome meditation wording!  Love it!     Yes my therapist is an oedema specialist.  She is the only clinic in town that is just specialising in oedema actually... she is a lovely lady and I'm so glad she has made room for me...    I also have massages I have to do myself at home.... of course,  a whole week of mine never compares to what she achieves in just 45 minutes!  🙂   I'm between a rock and a hard place - exercise is good for me so I do it - but that same exercise exacerbates the lymphedema I have...   I had head and neck cancer and the lymphatic system in my neck no longer works ... thanks to the radiation... but hey, on the bright side, I AM alive 🙂   ... View more

@Janine3220 Hi Janine, thank you for this info! I will get that book! My major concern right now is lymphedema... I have my oncologist appt tomorrow... if he confirms what my GP said then I am going to look into one of those redlight lamps... do you have any thoughts/advice on those that might be useful to me? Thanks! Donna ... View more

@mensana Take note of Janine's reply... very good stuff there! I heartily recommend also seeing a naturopath - some specialise in cancer patients so see if you can find one and they will put you on the right path for YOU, YOUR body and lifestyle and what you can afford. They will help you with everything including diet... much moreso than a GP. Having a good naturopath in your life is 100 times better than having a GP... in my opinion... and Janines probably... and many others I suspect... You've made it this far... you can go all the way! 🙂 I had my big petscan last Tuesday and get my results this Thursday. Fingers crossed 🙂 Donna xx ... View more

@mensana Hi! Short version: oncologist believes the markers in my blood test are from the dead/cying cancer cells from the radiation and not from new cancer cells. Although they are keen to see what if anything shows up in my abdomen at my petscan in 10 days time because there was something suspicious highlighted there last time and they don't know yet if it's something to be taken seriously or some kind of inflammation so I don't really know anything until I have that scan 🙂 thinking positive though 🙂 ... View more

@mensana I know the feeling and sympathise with you and what you're going through ! x At the end of my treatment i told my oncologist it is just as well this is the end because honestly, if it wasn't, I couldn't go on and do more... I'd be ending it right now... so it was just as well that was my last day of treatment! And you're right - the chemo gets harder with each treatment... Hang in there... look for the light at the end of the tunnel and just focus on that! xxx Donna ... View more