It Might Get Messy

National Cancer Institute estimates for 2012 are that 13,000 people in the US will contract tongue cancer, and around 2,000 of them will die. Five year survival rate for Stage 4 cancers (like mine) nationally are about 30% [1]. My doctors estimate 80% survival even for advanced-stage cancer with the aggressive treatment combination that the GBMC Head, Neck and Throat Cancer Center set up for me. They say that in particular the two-a-day radiation exposures are important, making it impossible for the malignant cells to recover between treatments enough to reproduce. 


I do try not to worry. And to be kind to my throat. Knowing that inflammation is a big component of cancer inception, I try to keep things smooth. Only a sip of wine now and then, easy foods, cooling non-alcoholic beverages. Of course, in Germany a few weeks ago, that program got flushed when it became clear that I would have to eat such throat-challenging comestibles as smoked fish, wursts, sauerkraut, and beer if I was to maintain my weight. At the end of a full week of such insults, my throat was swollen and sore. Recovered quickly, though. By the time I left for the Philippines three days after returning from Berlin, my throat felt fine.


Per the prior entry, it took some dietary futzing to find foods I could get down my throat at all. The glass noodles do it, and for the past couple days I’ve made starchy noodles work (the lo mein at lunch was particularly good). But here’s the thing. Fresh fruit juice is a huge amenity of the tropics. Mango is ubiquitous here, and it comes in orange, yellow or green. Other fruit juices include a really sour kind of citrus (little key-lime looking things), freshly squeezed OJ, and on and on, to a list in good restaurants that run to a dozen juices and another dozen “shakes” with added sugar, water and ice. 


When I slurp the acid juices (which are fabulously delicious, BTW), and let them run down the right side of my throat, I get a sharp pain in a particular spot. After drinking, my throat feels swollen in that spot. And I’m thinking “inflammation?” Or worse? A pre-tumor? Another full-blown tumor?


I dunno. I don’t want to sound paranoid. But I have appointments with both my surgeon and my radiation oncologist when I get back to the States. And I’m happy about that. I’d love the reassurance that there’s nothing problematic on the right side of my throat. But I’d love even more to catch something problematic early enough to obviate the two-a-day radiation exposures and once-a-week chemo infusion. A less devastating treatment regimen would make the fact of a cancer recurrence a lot more bearable. 


I’m probably just being overly sensitive. But I’m keeping those appointments! I’ll let you know how they come out. Meantime, there’s Philippines travelogue over at http://docviper.livejournal.com/, and should be a new edition of my professional blog at http://aehsfoundation.org/ . Thanks for being here, everyone. Mabuhay and Salamat. Love to all!


Notes


[1] http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/tongue.html