One Week Post Treatment - The Challenge is over....or is it?

I finished all of my treatments on Friday 20th May.  Such elation to finally put it all behind me.  I already understood that there was more of the challenge to some.  You see, it is only when the burning stops, that the pain comes out.  Try it!.  Touch your skin with a hot clothes iron.  It doesn't hurt until you take the iron away and you see what you have done.

Now I am not complaining at all, but Radiotherapy is actually using radiation burning to kill of the deadlies that you don't want.  So it is inevitable that once the treatment ends, the burning will start to show and emerge.

The photo to the left shows what my neck looked like on Sunday afternoon - two days after treatment ended.  You can see the crusty skin and the burnt creases in my skin.  Now this just feel like rather bad sunburn and it doesn't hurt unless you touch it or move your neck too quickly, or stretch it.

So collared shirts are out.  They rub against it and if you look closely at the area around my neck, you can see where just a t-shirt can rip the burnt skin off.

I have a heap of curative things to put on it - Cetaphyl cream, Sorbolene etc., but I need to ensure that it stays moist and clean for the next few days because I really can't afford for this to become too raw and possibly get infected.


Solution, simple, keep it bandaged.  Lisa comes to the fore as a brilliant nurse here.  She applies Solugel to a gel impregnated gauze which is laid up against the burnt skin.  This is covered by a non stick pad that keeps everything "sterile", air free and moist.   Tis is all held in place by some stretchable gauze tubing that holds it all and allows a loose fitting bandage to cover everything.  The result is the handsome looking battle scar evident old geezer to the right.  God let me tell you how much I miss shaving.

Can't wait for everything to heal so that I can finally wet shave again. I suspended shaving on about 25th February once they told me that cuts to my face might not heal for weeks.

I need to attend to the neck dressings 4 times a day, which is not too bad, but it is not something you can do on your own.  You can try in a mirror but you would need to be far more mirror talented than me.  I am stuffed if I can move my hands in the right direction when I am looking in a mirror and trying to complete even the simplest of tasks.

The edges of the dressings dig right in to the sensitive skin and do result in some raw edges that bleed a little bit, but once they crust over they start to itch and the main challenge is not being tempted to scratch or pick at it.  I know enough to know that when the scale falls of the skin beneath will be healed, so I resist as much as I can hoping that the process will be accelerated.  The results of maintaining a good routine can be seen in the photo to the left.  The pink skin in the middle is where the healing has occurred over the red raw bits in the top photo, and the crusty scaling is the next "bit" to heal.

So I am excited with the great improvement in one week and am really now driven to maintain what I am doing in the hope that by the end of this coming week, I will be in a much better position.

It is important to know that the burning that is outside my neck, is also going on inside my throat, but despite all that, I am also seeing great signs that things are well and truly "improving".  I can now open my teeth wider than 2 cm.  I can actually touch the left hand inner cheek with my tongue.  Something that has not been possible for over a month now (due to the tongue burn) and I genuinely believe that some tastes are starting to return.  I had a piece of Porterhouse steak the other night and whilst it was slightly overcooked and not quite as rare and moist as I would have liked (which meant it was harder to chew), I am very happy that I could actually taste the steak.

So I am really happy with where I am and look forward to each 24 hour period as even minor improvements provide such positivity.  

The next challenge comes when I feel safe and comfortable to venture outside in to the cold (and the sun).  I do not want to get cold.  It takes a lot of energy to get warm.  Very much like sunburn, if direct sunlight hits my face I really know about it.   Once that eases, I can get out and start walking on the beach.  I don't want to do it later in the day because I don't want to get cold and I can't "rug up" because I don't want anything rubbing against my neck.

I have plenty of time, so I simply take slow small steps.  I will get there and the improvements over the last week prove that the me.  It took me 8 weeks to get where I am now.  I have 7 weeks to get back....  I still have some challenges to get through, but like everything up until now, they do have their "fun" bits.