Day 12

A relatively easy day.

As usual it took me a while to get ready in the morning. But it wasn’t as bad as usual this morning and I was actually dressed by 11:00.

I went through e-mails for a while and at about 12:30 I went out and got myself some lunch. Remembering how well the steak went down last night, with a bit of salt added to get the old salivary glands working, I thought I’d try a “sandwich grec” (Greek sandwich) sometimes referred to as a “sandwich turc” (Turkish sandwich) and known as a Doner Kebab in Britain. These are generally really salty and served with chips (fries for the Americans in the audience) in the sandwich. Here in France, and especially in my neighbourhood, we add harissa sauce. The sandwich was actually delicious and the salt helped a lot. However at one point in the sandwich I hit a lump of harissa and thought I was going to die. The burning sensation down my throat could not be helped by water. I drank half a litre. It wasn’t the normal burning sensation as when one eats something spicy. It was a burning sensation as though I had literally eaten something that was boiling. Sweat was running down my face from the spice and tears were running down my cheeks from the pain. I had never realised how one sandwich could be such an intense experience. I opened the sandwich and ate the rest of the insides with a fork so as to avoid the sauce on the bread.

I’m learning…

Back to the clinic for my treatment. They were late as always but I had my book to read, on my Palm, so I was fine. After treatment I got them to book my x-ray treatments for the chemo week fitting the treatment just before the start of chemo each day. I went home with an ever increasing feeling of dread as chemo is now a week closer.

Back home I put myself to bed and didn’t get up again until Desney got home after 18:00. She made a dinner of salmon and some pasta with courgettes and it all went down well.

I realise I spend most of this blog talking about what I eat. However not only is food one of the great pleasures, and most important aspects, of my life. But I also use this blog to go back in time and see what I was capable of days/weeks earlier and what the cause and effect was on my body. I apologise if the medical and gastronomical aspects get boring. But I selfishly use this blog for myself more than anyone else. You’re all invited spectators not targeted readers. It’s an interesting, and more than slightly narcisstic, concept.

After dinner I started to realise just how much my throat is starting to hurt. The dry mouth is constant and there is slight pain every time I swallow. At the moment it's not even at the level it was at after my last surgery so it is more than bearable and I can eat solids without difficulty. However when I yawn I get a sneak preview of what the pain is going to be like as, luckily for a very short moment, it definitely hurts. I can only imagine that all of this is going to get worse during the next week.

Because I had slept so much in the afternoon I didn’t get to sleep until very late. I hope I didn’t wake Desney…