Rick Gardner's Esophageal Cancer Story Page Four |
Rick's Battle With The Beast |
Food, and other Weighty Matters... |
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Someone else with a swallowing problem.... |
We caught this guy in the act of trying to eat fish from our pond. |
Well, I sort of sailed through chemo... relatively speaking. Nothing tasted good for a long time. It was a couple of months before I had functioning taste buds. When I did taste anything, it had a metallic overtone to it. Radiation was no picnic, but it really got bad after I was actually done with the treatments. After 25 rad. treatments (not 27 like we were told in the beginning), it looked like they were giving me some time off until "the team" decided what comes next. We thought they were going to give me a month or so off from treatments to let me gain my strength back. In reality, I think they gave me a month off for the radiation effects to catch up and do it's ugly dirty work. Almost immediately after finishing radiation, I started losing weight. Nothing tasted right. My stomach hurt like hell after eating. I would get spasms all up and down my chest and new 'stomaphagus'. My throat burned. I now can understand how people starve to death. Once you stop eating, you don't need to eat and then you can't eat and it's a vicious cycle. I was having problems just swallowing in general, so I had my first dialation done at the end of April. From what I read, I guess I'm lucky I didn't need one before then. Most EC patients need to be dialated (or stretched) a month or so out from surgery. And then, sometimes, quite often after that. |
Before I knew it, I was in a downward spiral, dropping about 5 lbs every week. By mid-May I weighed 146 lbs. My wife was frantic, trying different foods to tempt me; trying anything that might put some weight back on me. Sugar now causes dumping. As does most dairy foods. And definately fried foods. We tired several types of liquid meals - Ensure, Boost, etc. The ones we found had too much sugar. Even the expensive medical grade protein powder called Unjury that we ordered over the 'net didn't go down well. There is one named Glucerna that is made for diabetics, and that one has no sugar. ANYWAY... what finally saved my life, I think, was bananas. Before EC, I couldn't tolerate them. I liked them, but they didn't like me. I don't know what made me think I should try one now, but I'm glad I did. It went down easy and stayed down and I almost immediately started to feel stronger. Every day since then I eat a banana each morning. Potatoes are another thing I can eat that give me calories. Strangely, noodles don't go down so good. And stranger yet, what works this week may not work so good next week. Lately, I've taken to eating lots of olives. At 25 calories for three of them, they make good snacks. |
Waiting is the Hardest Part.... (Well, not really, but it is pretty hard!) |
Yep, that's me up there. SOMEONE has to clean the camper roof. Just glad there isn't a strong wind that day. (July 4, '06) |
This is how I like to spend my days now. Every chance I get I'm out on my kayak, fly fishing. It's a great way to build upper body strength. |
On June 15 my team of doctors decided I could have that hideous, large port taken out. If I need any further chemo, we'll have another put in. I am so happy this one is OUT. I feel almost human again. At this point, my doctors feel that I am not in need of further treatments - and for all intents and purposes, I am cancer-free. I will be having a CT scan in mid August, and the follow-up with my doctors in September will tell us the whole story. We go on with our lives. We wait. We pray. I try hard to gain some weight back. I am struggling to hold my weight at 130 lbs now. (Down from pre-surgery weight of 185) I try to ignore the pain. My stomach always hurts after eating. Robyne has taken a part time job. We go camping. We spend time with the grandkids. We work in the yard & garden. I recently bought a kayak and I'm having a ball with that. Life Goes On. We are Blessed. |
September '06 Update: |
N.E.D. = No Evidence of Disease! N.E.D. = The three sweetest letters in the alphabet! N.E.D. is what was on the report of my first follow up CT scan. They did find a tiny 7mm undetermined "shadow" on my liver, but we're not going to worry about that now. Follow up scans will be scheduled in three months. LIFE IS GOOD. |
N.E.D! |
