The Taber Family Blog

Today I got a call from my new “complex” caseworker from the North Bay Group who had just been assigned to my case. Essentially as a new diagnosis of cancer and with all the required coordination of doctors and information about my case, my medical group sees fit to assign someone to assist me with managing all of the various bits of information, dates and other communications among all the doctors with whom I’m involved. Pretty cool idea from what can discern so far.  My case worker told me I am to rely on her to make sure everything moves forward in a coordinated fashion and that she’ll take care of all the details.  She graciously allowed me to whine a bit about why things seem to move so slowly, and about my new daily battle with pain in varying degrees. She had a lot of good information and somewhat put my mind at ease for now.

I also learned that Dr.’s Woolf and Kaplan concurred that the best path forward was radiation and chemo, so I feel relieved that issue has been put to rest. So I’ll start my radiation treatments on the 12th of February, along with chemo for a total treatment time of roughly 6 weeks.

The pain in my mouth has steadily gotten much worse and I’m having trouble getting to sleep at night for about the past week. It takes time each night to feel like I’m in a good position, with a good airway and convince myself I won’t snore so badly this time. Right!  One other downside to this whole fiasco is the snoring. Denise has been very understanding, but I know I’m sounding like a lumberjack during the night. The pain has started to make its way past the Advil and Aleve, and sometimes it becomes almost unbearable to speak. Feels like someone is pinching behind my tongue with a pair of needle-nose pliers pretty often these days.  Thankfully I did get a prescription for Tramadol from Dr. Woolf today for the pain. And I’m starting to spit up small amounts of blood each morning. UGH. Sorry for the gory details. I can’t wait to start this treatment and feel like something is finally being done about this whole thing.

I’m halfway through a little book called “The Key to Yourself.” I got this book from Denise, who got it from my Uncle Lynn. A very positive read that insists that every great success in life, whether it be personal success, or even winning against disease begins with a single thought, or mantra. Personal empowerment and healing achieved through intense focus and positive thought on the end result. It’s an ancient concept, but clearly a very powerful idea everyone can relate to. I was also given another book as a gift named Anticancer: A New Way of Life. I haven’t started reading it yet, but it looks to be a very comprehensive reference for cancer causes and ways to fight it with food and lifestyle changes.

And finally, my princess Denise has gone into overdrive with her amazing cooking, targeted at anti-cancer foods and ingredients. I’ve been given a hearty re-introduction to cabbage, tumeric, deep green vegetables and many other things I wouldn’t have ordinarily eaten. What can I say… she knows best.