hard to swallow.

We spend the bulk of today at the University of Nebraska Medical Center for two reasons.  Besides having an appointment with a swallowing specialist, Mike had a sore on his neck (in the radiation field) that was not healing and we were concerned enough to want to have it looked at.

This morning we saw Dr. Bill Lydiatt's Physican Assistant, Jennelea Montanez.  She was a familiar face and comforted us with her words something to the effect that she does not believe this is related to cancer.  We tend to think everything is these days. Can you blame us?  She said that Mike's skin is still suffering the effects of the radiation and called this sort of thing "radiation recall".  Technically she called it a musositis, or breakdown of the epidermal surface due to radiation.  We are to continue with the sulfa cream, and we were encouraged to keep Tara's organic moisturizing oils on his poor skin.  She assessed that the skin might have been irritated because it is located at a "bony prominence" at the base of his neck.  We laughed because he does have some bony prominences with his weight loss, but...

We were encouraged that when we did the tradition "weigh in" Mike showed some weight gain! He is up to 166 pounds - but we wanted to add that he is in need of a haircut so it might be closer to 165 - ha.

This afternoon we met with a swallowing specialist and found it very, very helpful.  Mike was encouraged by how many things he had "figured out" on his own - for instance, "adding extra juice, broth, gravy, butter and oil to your foods help it go down".  Not only did she clearly explain why swallowing is so difficult following a bout of radiation but she also gave Mike a series of exercises & stretches to do every day.  I call it "head & neck yoga".  The goal is to tone the swallowing mechanism.  Mike is totally jazzed about this because he is acutely aware of how helpful it will be.

This week Mike started Tony Horton's 10 Minute Workout to prepare himself for more extensive body conditioning at Anytime Fitness.  And today he added his head & neck pilates regime.  I have always admired Mike's discipline.  He is on the way to rebuilding his muscles all over the place.

I have said this before, but spending time around the head & neck oncology center is exhausting. But today we are super thankful for our good news about the "red spot that wasn't getting better".  That was news that wasn't hard to swallow.