More tongue troubles

Turns out that the road to recovery isn't a one-way street.

Just when I thought that I was making solid progress in getting cancer behind me, and my weeks of coping with a swollen tongue were becoming only a dim memory, I've had three consecutive days of tongue swelling.

At the same time, the lower left side of my face is numb to the touch.

I brought up the numbness sensation with Dr. B1 on my last visit. He told me it wasn't unusual, and could go away with the passage of time. But he also warned me that the numbness may be here to stay.

It's been exactly two months since my radiation and chemotherapy treatments concluded, so I'm still in that window period where it's too soon to determine if the first round of treatments succeeded.

I'm trying not to dwell on each and every twitch, throb or tingle that I feel. I don't go back to see Dr. B1 for another three weeks, and a week following that I have a PET scan scheduled.

A PET scan may do to any lingering cancer cells in my body what George Bush tried to do to terrorists lurking in the caves of Afghanistan: it'll smoke 'em out.

The next step in Bush's strategy was to bring terrorists to justice.

I'm not feeling that generous toward my cancer cells, frankly. Doc, let's skip the military tribunals and execute my cancer cells on the spot.