Happy Easter

Easter Sunday.....Abby just left to return to college. Beth and Kate are in FL on Spring Break -- Beth in Siesta Key, Kate in Panama City. Joyce and I are getting an early taste this week of being "empty nesters". As for my treatment / recovery -- well, things are getting better, slowly. My throat is healed enough that I can eat quite a variety of food. Acidic and very sweet items still burn. Also, my stomach / digestive system is getting used to "solid food" again, so it is not so bad to eat. I'm down to only 1 "liquid meal" a day -- first thing when I wake up, I mix Malt Powder and Carnation Instant Breakfast into either a Muscle Milk or a Boost to get about 300 quick calories to get some energy right away. The rest of my "diet" is mostly soups. In the past week, I've managed: Clam Chowder, Lobster Bisque, Crab-Corn Chowder, and Broccoli Cheddar. I've also eaten quite a bit of chicken, including Chick-Fil-A chunks on Thursday, Wendy's Fish Fillet on Friday (no bun, just the fish), and I ate most of a grilled cheese sandwich today -- where I used a lot of extra butter on the bread and "dunked" in the Clam Chowder. I'd prefer to dunk in Tomato Soup, but Tomatoes and Beef are two flavors that are "wrong" -- they taste very metallic. I'd guess I'm a month away from gaining weight back. I think I'm hitting about 1,600 to 1800 calories a day now, but it seems each day I can eat a little bit more which results in having more energy to try to do more things. I'm back at work now, although not making it in by 8am just yet. I have stopped taking the Oxycodone at night, so the only "regular" medication I'm taking is 1 5mg Ativan each night for "anxiety". Hopefully when my left ear starts working again, I'll be able to stop the Ativan, too. If not then, then after my late-May PET scan -- if the results are as hoped. At the advice of the docs, I'm also taking multi-vitamin and iron supplements to try to get some mineral levels back within normal ranges and also to boost red blood cell and hemoglobin numbers -- both of which are still too low. Some good news is that my "kidney numbers" have moved closer to the normal range and I believe they're on track to fully recover within weeks rather than months. So, I don't see a doc again for 3 weeks -- unless I get fed up with not hearing and go see an ENT. At 3 weeks, they'll take blood and tell me to eat and drink more and then I think we'll all just wait for the PET Scan and the meetings to follow. Happy Easter to all