wince

For the past few days I've been near tears after every meal, not from emotional pain but physical pain. I wince every time I swallow. Mentally, this is almost worse than the chemo, because 1) actual physical pain, 2) it happens every day, rather than one day every 2 weeks, 3) I really *do* feel like eating and everything tastes normal, but it hurts to eat. It doesn't matter if it's soft, hard, liquid, acidic or plain old water; it hurts.

Today was the 12th treatment and they started using the esophageal block. The radiation oncologist said because there are lymph nodes near the throat, they do want to treat that area, which is why they only use the block for half of the treatment. He said now that it's there, my throat should naturally start to heal, but if it's not better by Monday they can prescribe some pain medication.

(When I say "block" here I'm referring to the lead pieces they place between me and the radiation machine. There were just two pieces, but now they've added another T-shaped piece to block exposure to the esophagus.)

Nothing else exciting to report, I guess.