My Beautiful hair.......sob, oh and RT15

Well facial hair....I am sooooo pissed off. since I wear my facial fuzz in a nice trim goatee style I was rather hoping the RT would affect the area around my cheek and jaw and not have any impact on my much loved furry facial pet.

But sadly no, I noticed after todays treatment while looking in the mirror a small bald spot, which when I rubbed it, resulted in a larger bald spot....and of course you can't stop rubbing and pulling when you start.

Lo and behold...almost half my beard has gone.

sob...I do hope it grows back, I hate not having my furry facial pet.


RT15...again not a big deal, aside from forgetting I had my mobile phone in my pocket which the tech kindly took out of harms way.

Docs control visit was more interesting, he was very pleased to hear that Caphasol had worked so well on my sore mouth, and filled in a short survey from the makers, he gave me a script for it but did warn me I would have to pay for it, and it was expensive, he gave me a form from the makers that he hoped would let the pharmacy supply it free but, in the end they didn't.

Also something to help me swallow, Ulcogant suspension, I have to take it an hour before I eat and it will ease the pain.

The Pharmacy did not have any Caphsol in stock, and sure enough I would have to pay for it and boy is it expensive, €177 euro's for 30 doses...ouch...I have seen it cheaper online but I am always wary of these online pharmacy sites. So will get it properly and see if I can claim it back at a later date. I have to wait till Monday though as they had to order it.

Thats the end of week 3...and time to take stock. Week 2 was indeed when the side effects I was told to expect kicked in, the sore mouth/tongue being the worst of them, and happily eased.

Swallowing has become progressively more painful and physically a little harder to do each day but for now I am still able. The use of Paracetamol and Ibuprofen an hour before i want to eat helps a lot I am hoping the new meds will do the same

Skin wise...well I suppose the loss of the beard is a skin issue, but aside from redness that looks and feels a little like mild sunburn there are no other problems

Fatigue levels are variable really, sometimes I am really tired and need a nap, other times I'm perfectly normal, but i do notice much less stamina when cycling or walking. I think the secret really is just not to over do things.

The mornings are the hardest, waking up with a sore dry nasty tasting mouth and usually a sore scratchy throat. But after the morning dental routines and lots of water it gets manageable.

Overall though considering what others have said they are like at 3 weeks I have bee mega lucky and am not in bad shape overall, just need to keep swallowing and eating what I can.

Dr Oie said I could stop using the Chlorohexadine mouth rinse, its a powerful anti bacterial agent but now when I use it it stings like alchohol so I am going to stop for now.

Time to charge up the clippers and remove the other half of the beard.....it better come back when this is all done!!!