Welcome to Camp Funk

first week of recovery

Dave had a follow up appointment on Friday with the cancer team in Green Bay. He is still having problems with pain. Not so much on the outside, but the inside of his throat hurts really bad. Dave said it hurt as much as it did after the surgeries back in November. He actually had tears many times this week in the morning trying to drink water it hurt so bad. The doctor said this is all normal and that his throat is healing. They have increased his pain medicine again and hope it will get better soon.At least he should be able to get some better sleep on the increased pain medicine.

Good news is that overall he is recovering much better than expected. The bandages they put on his neck helped and his skin held together and did not break open. It actually looks great and a lot better than it did a week ago. They said he only needs to wear the medicated bandages at night when he sleeps and to just keep lotion on it during the day.

Every time Dave puts the lotion on he says a line from the movie Silence of the Lambs when the serial killer tells a victim "It puts the lotion on and rubs it in..." I have never seen the movie but Dave said it is a really creepy scene and he always says the line in a really weird voice. What a goofy guy.

Overall they feel in the next week he should feel 100% better than he did last week and he should see even more improvement as time goes on after that.

He's lost 33 lbs. total through this cancer ordeal, about half of that during the radiation treatments. Funny thing was that he had planned to try and lose about 20 pounds over the winter, but he had planned to do it with exercise and a healthy diet, not from cancer. He has lost some muscle tone too, but not too much but even so he has all sorts of P.T. exercises to do to get stronger. He will still probably lose a few more pounds before he gets back to eating a regular diet. Right now he is still on mostly fluids and protein supplements to get by. He did have some eggs and a few bites of a casserole this week, but it hurt so he backed off of both for now. Dave has written a big list of food he plans to eat when he is able to. He can’t wait for a big bacon cheeseburger with fries.

His care is now being transferred back to the docs at the Mayo Clinic. We go there for a long day of appointments on March 19^th. They said Dave will need at PET/CT scan in May and then every 3 months after that for the next 2 years.

Thank you for your continued prayers and faithfulness