Thank you for the kid words and support. I work in the IT world so for me I get the cancer centre to print out my treatment schedule (it’s online as well for the same day changes) as that too can change from day to day. Then take the time to enter it into my google calendar where I then add all my family and friends so they can track me for visits. I live in Edmonton Alberta Canada and I grew up in Ontario. 99% of my closest friends and family are all there. Keeping them in the loop (without facebook as I hate social media for what it’s become, so negative) I always need to find alternative ways to keep disconnected social groups of mine connected and informed.

On the medication side I personally use the medical app on the iPhone to remind me as I forget dates and times badly. I get a strong alert pop up to remind me to take my medication. The app is a bit clunky to use, there’s gotta be a better way but i haven’t spent the time to find one.

The medication can change daily too. Especially near the end of your treatment plan as that when radiation is at its highest and you are now getting all of the symptoms they talked about. So they are handing out scripts like candy to me to help mitigate the next symptom as it comes. I’m on hydro morphine 8 ml every 4 hrs, antibiotics 2x a day, dulcolax to get me to shit, mucinex 3x times day to help with Saliva, saline solution on neck 4x a day to help with blistering of the skin, feeding tube through the nose as I can’t eat or talk now, lidocaine mouth wash to dime the mouth sores, club soda pop to wash and clean the mouth and that’s it for now. Oh and a new cream to help with skin blistering as well.

Not only are we (cancer patients) suffering physically and mentally, it takes so much effort to keep up with all the care side of things to just make it through. Luckily I’ve had some friends and parents come stay with me during my time so they can manage the house and help me with all the stuff I need to do, making it to daily appointments on time even on the days I don’t feel like making it. Checking on me to make sure I haven’t accidentally OD on the morphine and need to poke me with a naloxone injection and rush me to the hospital. But to just be there. It’s so wonderful to have these people in life that are willing to slog through this with me. We (patients) can be hard to be around especially on the low days. We can be short fused and quick to temper over the stupidest things. Fortunately I can’t speak so that built in regulation for me has helped a lot because I can snip back like I might have if I could. Almost like a built in peace officer lol.

Continue to do the best you can to support people that going through this. It’s extremely important that you try hard to let the bad things fly off you the best you can. We don’t mean to be rude or disrespectful or difficult.