Hyperbaric Treatment

After almost 30 sessions, Karen's hyperbaric treatment finally comes to an end this week.  It has certainly been a long 5 weeks of treatment.  Although not as physically taxing on Karen as the radiotherapy treatment, it still had its drawbacks in making it happen.  The reality of of spending 2 hours in the chamber everyday became quite the task.  Although only 2 hours, Karen lost a good 4 hours of her day as by the time you factored in travel time and the preparation required once she got to RAH, it really dominated her day.   So a huge thank you to family and friends and work for coming to the party again in helping us out with watching the boys when we were stuck and the flexibility of work hours to make it happen.  The burning question though, was it all worth it?

Yes, it was worth doing, but no, it did not have the desired results.  There has been no improvement at all.  So on that score it is disappointing, but not unexpected.  We certainly wont go away wondering if we hadn't tried this if it would have worked though.  So for any head and neck cancer patients considering this treatment if it is presented to you, I would say give it a go.  It was not successful for us, but that is not to say it would not be for you.  The hope was that it would alleviate some of the pain in the jaw and neck, help in increasing the production of saliva and general cell and tissue repair in the effected area.  Unfortunately none of this has happened.  In fact, (and this may just be coincidence), Karen has experience increased pain in the area since having had the treatment.  Prior to the start, she was able to manage her ongoing pain with over the counter pain killers.  However this is no longer proving to be enough and on bad days requires a harder approach to keep the pain at bay.  Like I said, it may just be coincidence, but my feeling, (based on no experience on the subject), is that perhaps the treatment has stirred things up in the area.

So what now?  We have an appointment tomorrow with Radiation and Oncology about the increased pain in the area.  The inability for Karen to eat any food without pain is a worry.  It is near on impossible to come up with a menu that doesn't have Karen grimacing at the table as she tries to eat.

Distressing for all of us, as food is such a big part of our lives and ongoing happiness.  A sad state of affairs when you can no longer enjoy chocolate!!  As we read somewhere on a post on Facebook this morning, "being happy shouldn't have to be a challenge".  It shouldn't be, but we still have a lot of days where it is.