Einstein & Brisket Reprise
It’s been a solid week of recovery since my last update. That is somewhat to be expected, as I’m in the last week of the cycle and only a few days away for my last scheduled treatment. If all goes well with my blood counts, my final visit to receive a chemotherapy infusion will be on Friday, 12 October.
With this being a relatively strong period, I decided to follow up with appointments to address some side effects. In particular, I saw a speech pathologist and an ENT PA after another hearing test.
As I’ve mentioned before, my hearing has fluctuated during this ordeal. The good news is that my hearing is now back to the “normal range” for the most part. My last hearing test was in July, just two days after I finished radiation, so there was a lot of extraneous factors. In that test, I had negative pressure in both ears, and the eardrum movement was limited on both sides. While my right ear improved, my left ear was worse than before I started treatment. I sensed things had gotten better, so I wanted to see how much. With the test last week, things were still balanced but with additional improvement in my right ear. However, in that ear, I still have hearing loss at higher frequencies. The pressure issues in both ears continue to persist. Just before my test, I did the valsalva technique, which cleared my right ear (eardrum moving normally), but did not clear my left (still with negative pressure). If I was able to clear the pressure in my left ear, the test may show different results.
The tinnitus issue, particularly in my right ear, was another area of concern. Things seemed to have improved slightly, but I wanted to get another opinion on whether the hearing issues would be temporary or permanent, as it’s a side effect of the chemo drugs. The PA said that it’s still too early to tell. She also was the first to clearly explain to me that the radiation treatments may have left scar tissue and damaged my Eustachian tubes. That means that I may have to deal with chronic issues, like fluid not draining properly in both ears. Fortunately, these are at low levels now, and I shouldn’t have any issues with flying. I’ll have to do another follow up in a few months.
I also saw a speech pathologist, who specializes in head and neck cancer patients. As one who enjoys food as much as I do, I did not think I was someone who has issues with swallowing - I’ve been known to consume large quantities in relatively short periods of time (though nowhere near competitive eating levels). I’m glad I went. I had done a video swallowing study before treatment started. In that study, she showed me some deficiencies in my swallowing. For example, I sometimes need to swallow twice in order to get everything down. These issues will be exacerbated by the effects of the radiation treatment, with some of the impact occurring in the months and years after treatment.
One question she asked that seemed particularly relevant was whether I had experienced any voice changes. The day before my visit, someone had asked me if I was sick, as my voice sounded more nasally than normal. She said voice changes like that is an indication that my throat muscles weren’t working as they should. She gave me a number of exercises to help strengthen my muscles and my neck. One of them involves sticking out my tongue as far as possible and then swallowing. When I did this at home, Aiday mentioned that I looked like Einstein, as my hair was wild and my tongue was exposed. I’ll take that comparison, even if it wasn’t in the context of anything intellectual.
As far as food & eating, I’ve been trying to eat more, but my weight continues to hover at the same levels, without any gain. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be in a hyper metabolic state. Given my troubles eating at my own BBQ a few weeks ago, and Aiday not getting to chance to try some dishes, I did a reprise of some of the dishes from Pork Fest. In particular, I made another beef brisket (15 lbs) and the chicken tikka masala (3 lbs meat) with saffron rice. Since this was for a dinner party for 6 (plus a toddler), there were plenty of leftovers and no rush to make sure the food didn’t run out. There was enough that my friends took some of the leftovers home with them. I figured the 15 lbs brisket at $3.49/lb at Costco was worth it, as brisket sells for $20+/lb at the BBQ spots in Chicago.
I was also able to take more pictures, which I forgot to do last time.
The good news is that I can eat both of these items a little more easily than before. For the brisket, I could even eat it with some BBQ sauce. Before, the BBQ sauce was too acidic and tangy. When I tried to eat the chicken tikka masala two weeks ago, a small amount of the sauce was way too spicy for me and caused pain. This time, I was able to eat an entire portion, albeit with a lot of saffron rice to diffuse the spice. So, it seems like my tolerance to spice is starting to improve, in baby steps. I still need to drink a lot of water (and milk) when eating these meals (over 1.5L at dinner), both to moisten the meat and to cool my mouth down. In eating the leftovers, though, some days are better than others, so my tolerance varies a bit.
That’s about it for now. Hopefully I’ll just have another 2 weeks or so of side effects from the last treatment, and then have a clear recovery path to follow.