After treatment ended I was recovering rapidly and I started to feel really good. But lately I've been a little discouraged after I got off the pain killers because my body just feels so weak and tired. Perhaps the narcotics were masking how I really felt? Or maybe I was expecting the recovery to continue to proceed at a rapid pace but it slowed down. One other possibility is that my thyroids have been damaged by the radiation, which was one of the side effects they warned me about. I told my doctor today about my tiredness and he said that the radiation usually makes people feel like this for several months and that the thyroids usually don't start to fail until about 6 months after treatment.
I'm trying hard to maintain my weight by eating lots of soft and wet foods. So far I've maintained my weight since treatment ended! My mouth is still quite dry, but it seems to have gotten better over the past few weeks. One great thing is that my taste is starting to return! I had some cereal the other night and I noticed that I tasted a little sweetness. Until then I could only taste salty and bitter, but now I've started to get sweet back. My sense of taste is still very weak, but anything is better than nothing. Praise God for that!
This week I'm planning on resting as much as I can. The doctor said that my trouble sleeping and night sweats are common after-effects of long term narcotic use. So I'm hoping by next week my body will normalize and I'll start getting better sleep. If all goes well maybe next week I'll also do a little exercise. My doctor recommends some light weight lifting to build back the muscles that have atrophied over the past 5 months.
As for my speech I think it is pretty good. It has gotten a little worse over the past few weeks as the muscles have a tendency to stiffen as they heal. My doctor told me today that the best therapy is to keep stretching and talking a lot while I'm healing. So feel free to call and help me exercise my jaw and tongue muscles.
No comments:
Post a Comment