Rllampton
My heart goes out to you and your family, getting a cancer diagnosis feels like a bad dream (that it can’t be true).
Right now you’re processing a lot of things so be gentle with yourself. Couple of things I found that made my journey easier:
(1) Had my wife come with me to every doctor visit with a notebook to take notes of everything that was said. This was very helpful as your head is spinning with emotions/stress/anxiety and it’s easy to overlook something said.
(2) Exercise (walk) before you start treatment to build up your strength and stamina…as you begin treatment your body will be able to recover faster. I had three weeks before surgery to walk every day and continued through the first few weeks of radiation until I got too tired to walk.
(3) Consider talking to a mental health professional about what you’re experiencing…the biggest surprise I had was the mental health issues that will come up dealing with cancer and treatment. It’s all consuming and I found talking about it helped me to process my emotions and feelings.
(4) Stanford University Speech and Language has posted a very helpful guide to head and neck exercises to perform during treatment that will strengthen your swallowing muscles and keep your neck and jaw muscles from stiffening and loosing strength. I did these prescribed exercises 3X/day and it saved me from using a feeding tube and made post treatment easier to manage. Two weeks post radiation I was able to eat steak and salad which is not typical for many patients according to my doctor.
I know how low you must feel right now as you start your journey…we’ve all been there and can tell you it’s a lot to deal with…but you will get through this (& believe me one silver lining to getting cancer is my appreciation for life and for my family (especially my wife) is so much deeper than I ever could imagine.
One day at a time, hang in there and know that people are praying for you and your health!