Many of the blogs, websites and general writings about cancer refer to it as a battle, a fight, or a journey. I’ll go with the battle or fight, but I don’t like to think of it as a journey. This is about My Cancer Detour. My journey is living my life. Cancer is a detour on the journey of a life.
My life journey was interrupted by a collision with an oropharyngeal carcinoma that was discovered in September of 2006. These pages are based on or at least culled from the remnants of a blog I had created to document what was happening at the time. From this page, and using the navigation tools you can link from here to many of those original posts about how I maneuvered through the drama, trauma and challenges that the treatment and recovery posed.
There is more coming than is in evidence here.
There’s actually quite a bit in the basic blog, however its a bit challenging to uncover most of it, and just as challenging to understand its relevance. I am trying to impose some sort of order on it, but I’ve encountered a couple of road blocks. I’m dealing with them now.
Links to blog posts and other pages;
As I continue to fumble with the WordPress platform, which is my issue not the platform’s, I will be working at getting some real content attached to this page soon. In the near term, here are links to a bunch of older posts that may or may not have value for you. Bear in mind that the secondary navigation bits, the “tags” will take you further into my experience and my thinking, a far deeper dive than what’s on this page.
And there is some really special content in the pipeline. At least I’m hoping that you’ll find it special.
Have fun!
- Tell your own story
- Self medicating and unilateral changes to dosages=dumb move
- 10+ years on
- Akabutu’s Mouthwash
- Another take on the Akabutu’s Mouthwash recipe
- Eat Well, Sleep Well, Move With Purpose
- Another turn around the sun, and a milestone birthday come and gone
- Broke a tooth!
- Send me a note to call me on my behaviours!
- A thought for survivors
Another take on the Akabutu’s Mouthwash recipe
Taking care of the care givers can be costly…but it is worth the cost!! 😉
Watch out for DAVFs!! Sneaky things…Yes, it means I had a stroke!!
Time to ‘Buddy Up!”, boys and girls…
Photos
The following photos are a bit out of context, which isn’t entirely fair. The first one, the ‘flap’ site is, or was, intended to illustrate the low impact although ugly-looking result of harvesting tissue from my left forearm to rebuild the back of my throat. That tissue ‘relocation’ supports my ability to swallow today. Its a fabulous solution to the challenge.
This second shot was taken approximately 48 hours after the well planned, perfectly executed though highly invasive and complicated surgery designed to excise the tumour and get to ‘clear margins’. I’d been moved from Surgical ICU, to a private room and then I was cascaded into ‘shared’ accommodations. The little ‘bulbs’ of fluid are indicative of the drainage required to prevent or control swelling when they take away that many lymph nodes. How may lymph nodes? You’ll have to read through the blog to find that answer.
They let me out of the hospital after ten days, after much whining and a short bout with C.Diff.
Contextualizing all the information and photos in the blog is part of what I’m supposed to have been working on. I’ve let this part of the website/blog languish for years. There are ‘updates’ on the way.
