The Futures looking bright (food & appetite anyway)!

Hello again everyone. Dave went to see Dr. Simmons, the radiation dr. this morning. Dave has maintained his weight, not lost or gained since his radiation ended March 18Th. Dr. Simmons liked the way his skin on his neck healed and the inside of his mouth looked great. Dr. Simmons will not try to get the scope down until his 3 month checkup in June, when Dave is completely healed. Dr. Simmons was impressed with the things that Dave is eating, he is starting to eat lasagna, garlic bread, small salad, and he ate ham on Easter with gravy, mash. pot. and veggies. These are all in small portions but he is very glad to be eating more solid foods. He still eats the cream of wheat in the morning but is also eating a pop tart or danish of some kind with coffee later in the morning. So he is beginning to eat more breaded type foods. He has eaten a couple of strawberry cupcakes that I made for Easter. Dave is snacking on fruit, pudding, sherbert and it seems like whatever he can eat, he's eating. He still drinks the Ensure for weight and the one to help gain his muscle strength back. He still has trouble with chicken, and pork chops because they are dry. His mouth is making saliva and getting better every day. He says some things still taste funky, salty, or no taste at all, although he is beginning to taste some things. He is wanting to make himself a pb&j to see if he can eat his favorite midnight snack, the day this happens will be one to rejoice!
Dave asked about when he could go back to work, Dr. Simmons said it's really up to you and how you feel. Dave says not yet, as he hasn't got his strength or stamina back. I totally agree, I see him everyday and he is not back to his old self yet. He does try to do things at home, but after a couple of hours or so (depending on what he's doing) he tires out and stops to rest. Sometimes he even takes a nap. He is going nuts being home all the time (and driving me crazy also). Hopefully for him he will feel up to going back to work sometime in May, but we'll see.
He will be getting the pet/ct scan sometime the week of May 18Th, and seeing the ENT at the end of May.
As he improves I will send updates. God Bless everyone, thank you for listening. We love you all.

Looking forward

Thought I would update a bit on how Dave is doing. His appetite is very slowly improving, he still eats a lot of cream of wheat (everything tastes really bad) He has successfully eaten some very, very small meals. He has started to eat the pudding and jello cups again, he even tried to eat some cookies and a donut to no avail. He experiences dryness of the mouth when eating. He said he will wait for those. He still drinks the ensure for weight gain three times a day, sometimes four. I am seriously thinking about buying the one to help with the muscle strength. Everything that Dave eats for the time being has to be soft, and he eats something every few hours.

Tommys birthday was April 1st, we got him an ice cream cake from DQ, Dave had a small piece of it and did OK. He says chocolate has a really off taste (he says he doesn't know how to describe it), the coldness did not bother him though. He will be trying more ice cream in small amounts, just not chocolate!

Daves energy level is still very low as well as his strength and stamina. This is slowly building up and he says he is going to start doing some very light workouts to help get his strength up.

Dave changed the oil and oil filter on his bike Thursday, it was a beautiful day here, in the mid 60's. He even washed it! I took my truck in to the shop for some work that day and it had to have the brake lines to the rear wheels replaced and a sensor of some kind. Dave picked me up on his bike and brought me home to wait for the repairs to be done. Later that evening he went for a very short ride. I do believe that he needed that after all of whats happening. He came back refreshed. Although the next day though he did take it very easy and relaxed.

We just learned that a good friend of ours is not doing well. We pray that he will be OK. Thank you for listening, God Bless each and everyone of you. We love you all.