Recovery Day 35 - Food!

Yesterday was my first day to eat more than 2,000 calories by mouth. I won't be able to hit that every day but it's nice to know I can hit that mark.

I had a bad experience with broccoli this week. At dinner on Wednesday I ate too large a piece and gagged on it. About 30 seconds later my stomach decided to come up. In part, I guess I'm still relearning how to swallow. But my portion size selection needs a little work too.

I saw Dr Nemecek on Friday. He said that my salivary glands are unlikely to come back to the same level that they were before cancer treatments and that it would likely take 15 months for them to come back as much as they were going to. I really didn't want to hear that. He also spotted Thrush in my mouth so I started a dose of Nystatin. It's a liquid that I have to rinse my mouth with and then spit it out. I do that twice a day. However, I don't know how long after spitting it out that I'm supposed to wait before I can rinse my mouth with water or brush my teeth.

Dr Nemecek also said that my stomach tube couldn't come out without his permission. While I would love to get rid of the tube I recognize that I'm still not getting quite enough calories by mouth. He also explained why I wasn't putting on any weight. (I have been frustrated because I'm stuck at 150.) Apparently my body is going through a lot of healing and the healing is sucking up a lot of the calories that I'm taking in.

Brushing my teeth has become easier. But flossing my teeth is still like playing hide-and-seek with my gag reflex. Flossing my back teeth is challenging because of that. I have to be really quick on the back teeth.