Hello Paul. I've just written a letter to Maurice who sounds so sad. How are things really going with the eating etc?
I was so please to have put on four pounds when I saw my specialist this week. It was a culmnination of bloody hard work. Eating became my work. I planned what I was going to have. I prepared it in batches when listening toplays on the radio because as you know it is all fiddly stuff.
But these lentils with butter, lightly spiced, and blended into a pulp are THE BUSINESS for the protein we can't get in bread and pasta.
I didn't reallt start doing these muscle-building exewrcises, did you? They made my arms ache and I thought well so my arms were scraggy? So I have plenty of pretty frocks with long sleeves.
Maybe you don't have the frocks but baggy trousers and sloppy white white shirts would make you feel musclier!
Are you having lots of voice therapy?
I was delighted today when I suddenly found I was singing that choir music from the begionning of 'Empire Of The Sun '. What a film. Pity to spoil that music wwith my accompaniment!
By the way you were talking about the Whittington. I have very grateful memories of it. When my son Magnus was 18 months old (he' now in his 30s--he was acting a bit strangely one Sunday afternoon. I thought he might have a lung infection and went down the hill (I lived in Shepherds Hill in Highgate) to Emergency. the doctor on duty diagnosed meningitis immediately, scooped the baby from my arms and literally galloped along the corridors while a nurse splashed ice cold water beside him, until he reachedf the place where the injections wer kept.
He saved the boy's life.
I had just to put in my tuppenceworth for the old place. (This was before it ws modernised). But obviously they were very bad with your diagnosis.
And so to bed. Regards Ishbel

hello everyone
i spoke to mums consultant today mum is going back to theatre tomorrow to remove the black bit on her tungue i also asked what was happening he said that they are going to put a camara down mums throat to see why the swelling is not going down it should have gone down by now but they cant put her into radiotherapy untill the swelling goes down as her chin won't fit into the mold but he has told us that it is the swelling that is holding everything up once that goes down they can get a move on with things
liz

Hello Liz--well that's great now that you know where you are going! Obviously even the smallest bit of swelling would hold up things as the fit has to be so precise. Hopefully that will go down very soon and the treatment will be able to start which will be positive for both of you.
Regards Ishbel and keep us posted.

H Isbel, No I dont get any Therapy for my voice all they say is that my vocal chord was damanged and the lack of tongue does not help?
The last time it was mentioned was awhile ago now went to ENT in Grays in Road and he put a camera down my nose & throat and said I do not know how you manage to eat anything?
That was the last time .
I eat so many fattening things now specially ice cream and Creme Caramel I have got the taste for it but it goes against all that I wish to putinside my body.
I virtually live on Patsa and Chicken of some kind or othe now
so any thing you could suggest I try?
Except for potato (& Fruit) which I dont not eat I am sick of buying them and in a few days they have gone off!

Paul

Paul I don't thik I'm going to be much help with your eating. You are lucky (?) to be able to eat pasta. That just sticks in my throat whichever way I do it.
Since the cancer I have become virtualy vegetarian as chicken has to be so blended that it tastes like pap! Well there is good pap and bad pap. By the way when I saw specialit last week he to said he couldn't understand how I managed to get anything down with the narrow aperture,
At the moment my favourite protein thing is without doubt lentils. It just needs a little bit of preparation and I don't think you like cooking much, or am I wrong, Paul?
But nothing could be easier. At the moment I have a half cup of green lentils (they could be red, or mkung beans, doesn't mattewr) soaking in a bowl of cold water. In the meantieme I've chopped up a large onion and two cloves of garlic/ Garlic is great for everything to do with health. But you can buy the onions frozen and chopped.
Later on, about 5p.m. I'll fry the onion and the garlic very gently with a dessert spoon of mild curry powder, dash of coriander powder. After about 5 min. I add the strained lentils (keep the liquid) and stir them around with a half tsp of salt. After a minute add the liquid and make up until everytging is just covered. Bring to the boil. Let it simmer for about 40 mins. Then blend and blend and blend until it's smooth.
That's it. You can double the amounts and it will last for days. I usually have some in the fridge and tryt to bhave a spoon now and again to keep the digestive juices going. The less you eat the less you want to eat. And nutrition isso important.
That's it really |Paul. If you look back through my posts, and Pauine's and Rosemary's, you will find other ideas maybe.
Would't it be lovely just to sit down and enjoy a meal like the good old days. Stillo at least we are still here to moan.
Cheers Ishbel

hi
well i went to see mum last night and i was shocked even though her tungue is back in it normal place a bit is still sticking out she now has a neck brace on she was realy down last night she wrote bang goes my holiday i soon but that out of her head i told her we would pospone it she shrgged her shoulders nothing i said helped all i could do was hold her hand and read what she wrote but they said she would be in for another 2 months is that from september when she was originaly told she would be out in september or is that from september now it will be november before she got out but one question that i keep asdking is what is the neck brace for

Hello Liz
It is probably being used to support the neck and limit movement. You could ask the nurses.
Best wishes
Vinod :coffee:

Isbel, Thankyou for your reply, I must tell you if you put a spoon full of oil in when cooking the pasta it goed down a treat and the Pasta does not stick together
They told me """I dont konw how you eat at all """

Paul

PAUL THANK YOU FOR THE TiP ABOUT THE PASTA . i'LL TRY THAT. i WAS SPEAKING TOO SOON ABOUT THE LENTILS IN MY POST TO YOU. Just couldn't swallow them tonight. But I think it was because I had another go at eating pulped roast beef and it just messed my throat up. After that all I could eat was ice-cream. And even then I had to dig out the seeds!
Sorry about caps by the way. Must have touched the lock with the heat.
I am feeling a bit sorry for myself today. Was invited for a week camping by the sea in Southwold in Suffolk by the daughters of my late partner. But there is no way I could risk choking up etc. over the camp stoves. It would spoil their fun as well as mine.
Also, like you, I need a LOT of sleep. And the idea of kipping on a foam mattress surrounded by children ahd dogs doesn't exactly grab whenh I could be reading Elmore Leonard in my little garden. It's daft to walk into stress if you can avoid it, isn't it.
Or am I being cowardly ?

Regards Ishbel

Hi Liz. My very best wishes to you and your mum. Of course it's a shame that the treatment hasn't gone perfectly, but it has gone well, and though two months seems a long time you can both look forward to life getting back to normal and the good times you can have together. Adrian

hi everyone
to me it looks like they have killed to birds with one stone the operation mum had last week to remove the black tissue has bee sucessfuly femoved and they have filled the hole where the cancer was with the peice of muscle they took from mums leg wheich they had attached to her tungue to keep it alive as for the neck brace it was put on to keep mums tungue in place and to stop the swelling from going into her jaw so that her face will be thr right shape to fit in the mould when it is time to start the radiotherapy she seemed better last night i think she is over the worst now i am hoping to have a surprize for her when she comes home fingers crossed as i am learning to walk again it is a slow prossess but i think it is going to work
liz