This Is The Week

This is the week!  We have been told by nursing staff, Head of Oncology and the Oral surgeon that by the end of this week of treatment, everything will come to a head, escalate, become apparent or fall in a heap.  So we truck into week 2 with caution and trepidation.  By week's end Karen's taste buds will be well and truly fritzed out!  The mouth ulcers will come and it will be a case of just trying to manage them rather than trying to rid them.  The pain in the mouth and throat will escalate to a point of requiring pain killers and the list goes on.  As it turns out, (and I knew this already), I have a very special wife, in that she is already displaying many of these symptoms already.  Clever girl.  I have included in this blog a comparison photo of beginning week 1 to beginning week 2.  The redness in the neck from week 2 is more a case of Karen's skin reacting to the Sorbolene Cream and rashing up on the effected area.  I refer you back to my comment, I have a very special wife.  We will be speaking with staff this afternoon about the reaction and hopefully move to a different moisturiser.

        Week 1                                                                                      Week 2

Outside of our daily trip into the RAH with times varying between 9.00am and 5.00pm our days roll on.  Life hasn't stopped and we are stilling dealing with the everyday demands as before as best we can.    Centrelink yesterday was a huge disappointment, having spent many hours on the phone with them, then collating all the required information, photo copying, GP appointment to fill in the medical report, assets test, then waiting in the office for 40 minutes to be seen.  Finally we sat down with a consultant only to be told within 5 minutes that we will not qualify for any assistance.  Could of told us this on the first call and saved us and them valuable time and energy.  

Not feeling quite as dark as last Friday, but still, (as we both are), finding it hard to get too happy over anything at the moment.  It sounds doom and gloom but being happy at the moment is just not the default setting.  That's not to say there are not moments of laughter and the usual silliness in the house, but they get quickly consumed by what we are dealing with.  Cancer certainly steals the joy!