A summer plateau

Hi friends,

What a summer, eh?  My recovery is proceeding about as expected. Things have recently felt like they’ve plateaued a bit. This makes sense, as it’s been about 2 months since my final radiation treatment.  I continue to see small milestones as my tissues continue to heal.

Here are some highlights:

I am still eating mostly soft foods.  There are a few reasons: 1) my tongue isn’t yet great at the mechanics of moving bits around my mouth, and 2) scratchy bits can cause my throat or tongue tissues to hurt. I recently decided to hire a personal chef to prepare several healthy vegetable-filled meals each week, which has made a big difference in the variety I’m eating, and seems like a good temporary support.  (As some of you know, I’m low-FODMAP, so cooking for me is like an obstacle course even in the best of times.)

My taste and tongue function continue to improve, slowly.  I don’t yet know what my end point will be, and it’s unlikely I’ll recover all my taste sensation.  I’m probably most of the way to my end point with recovering taste, but some patients report continued improvement, especially during the first 6 months. My tongue function will continue to improve as I progress with various exercises in the coming months.

Lymphedema has developed under my chin. This means that lymph fluid isn’t draining fully.  I’m doing various things to address it: daily lymphatic self-massage, sleeping on wedge pillow that elevates my head, keeping the skin moisturized.  Next up: a compression bandage, which should be super fun.  (Search “chin compression” and you’ll get why I’m snarky.) 

2 hours (!) of jaw/tongue exercises a day.  It’s taking all my willpower to spend nearly an hour on this each morning and each evening.  My routine includes fun stuff like poking (er, “massaging”) my tongue with my finger, stretching jaw and neck muscles, holding my mouth wide open, and other joyful activities.  My screen time has definitely increased, as I use full-length movies to motivate: if I watch the first half in the morning, then I’m somewhat more motivated in the evening, to see how it ends.  But it’s still monotonous, so wish me luck!

Cardio back in the mix. Restarting cardio in mid-June felt like a milestone.  Recently, C and I have been doing exercise videos together, and doing them not-alone definitely helps me motivate.

So that’s the scoop.  Hope y’all are having a summer that includes moments of joy and relaxation.

I’ll end with gratitude.  Things I’m grateful for include:

• Healthy food (pics below!)
• Green onion tops, harvested from our garden
• The shade while sitting under a tree
• My spouse
• Science
• Games!