Month: February 2019

• Radiation Therapy                     2/33
• Chemotherapy                           0/5

• Pain                    2/10
• Mood                 8/10
• Energy               8/10
• Side effects     1/10

Now the fun begins, first i have a schedule at the Hospital for fitting a mask i need to wear during the radiation therapy in order to fix my head during treatment, so the radiation only affects the specified area.

It takes about 15 minutes and is not unpleasant, some sort of warm wax is fitted around your head and then you just need to wait for it to harden.

Secondly i needed one more CT/PET scan in order to specify the location for the accelerator , this scan is shorter than the first one and the contrast fluid is much less unpleasant.

The first radiation therapy works just as promised, i can not feel anything and my taste buds are not affected, yet…., 32 more to go.

• Pain                    4/10
• Mood                 5/10
• Energy               6/10

The second week after surgery was also quite painful, but bearable. I went to my first meeting with the Oncologists at the Hospital, which confirmed that i had HPV tonsil cancer and it was found at a very early stage, so even when cancer sucks , my case was a very light case and survival prognosis were more than 90 pct. if i did the treatment.

Nevertheless they did not hide that i was in for a rough and intensive treatment, it was 6½ weeks, where i had to go to the Hospital 6 days a week to receive the 33 doses of radiation therapy and 5 times chemotherapy.

As the Hospital was quite far from my home, i had to spend 2 hours alone on transportation.

• Pain                    8/10
• Mood                 3/10
• Energy               3/10

The surgeon gently waked me up, i felt i just had felt asleep and was quite clear in the head without nausea. I could clearly feel that they had worked in my throat, but the medication softened the pain and it was bearable.

My wife came and i asked what time it was, when she told me it was late afternoon, we both knew that the surgery had not gone according to the pla as the surgery was scheduled to 2 hours.

Shortly after the surgeon came and told me the bad news, the lymph node was infected with cancer which had spread to the corresponding lymph node.

They had taken tissue samples in my mouth, gum, throat in order to locate the source and they found the cancer origin in my left tonsil.

Due to my profile of being quite young, healthy and non-smoking, the surgeon told me that with all probability it was HPV tonsil cancer, which despite being serious, is much less life-threatening than regular tonsil cancer, however, they needed to test the tumor in order to be sure.

It was off course a chock and my nearest family was shaken, i now knew that the surgery was only the beginning of a longer battle, which would last months.

The first week after surgery was quite painful, but not unbearable, i could handle the pain it with Paracetamol, i woke up some nights to spit a little blood out, but ice-cubes were very relieving.

• Pain                    None
• Mood                 5/10
• Energy               Usual

I was preparing mentally for the surgical operation, i had never been in full narcosis before and the thought scared the hell out of me.

As the control freak i am, i did not fear pain, but i really feared not to wake up again, no matter the fact that full narcosis is totally safe.

I had a consultation with the surgeons where the told me the procedure and what side-effects the surgery could cause, it was primarily a small risk for some nerve damage to the shoulder.

However contrary to the doctors at my local hospital, the surgeons said it was not likely, but they would not totally exclude the risk of cancer.
This was a general frustration i experienced during the examinations before the surgery – different doctors looked at my case and they gave me quite divergent assumptions, which resulted in confusion and uncertainty.

If the surgery went according to the plan, it would last about 2 hours, however if they found anything malignant in the cyst, they would remove my tonsils and polyps besides taking samples in order to locate the source of the malignancy.

I went to the hospital for the surgery in the morning, anxious for the full narcosis, but the narcosis went very well and was not unpleasant at all, i slept very quickly and felt nothing at all.