Oral cancer. My personal journey

My whole body is sore today! I did to much yard work yesterday. I have never been the kind of person who can go gently. I go full bore and then suffer the consequences. It is rainy and cold here today and will stay that way for the next four or five days. Ughh! I want to be outside. I am fed up with winter. The cold and drear affect me more after having spent three weeks in Florida.
I feel great. I still am having trouble with the congestion in my larnyx. I had some fried eggs with cinnamon toast for breakfast and could actually tell what I was eating. I could taste both. The flavor was very weak but recognizable. That gives me hope.
I wrote the following piece for our local paper. I don't know whether it will be published or not, but I thought that I would publish it here. A small part of the article is true.

My wife’s birthday is coming up next week. She asked me if I had gotten her a present yet. I said that I hadn’t. She showed me a flyer from Sears and said that there was a big sale on things for the home and that she would like some new every day silverware and dishes. Dollar signs began to run through my head. I somehow instinctively knew that this was gong to cost way more than I had intended to spend. I had been thinking that I might run to Peebles and see what they had on their sale rack in petites. New dish towels might also be nice. Maybe even a new mop. I knew that she would appreciate a good quality mop. She struggles so with the old one.
“What’s wrong with the silverware that we have dear?” I stupidly asked her.
“I mean the tines aren’t bent to badly on the forks, and I can straighten the bent ones in my vise!” The spoons don’t have holes in them yet! They still hold soup! The peas still stay on my knife!”
“ Look at them!” She stated. “They are horribly pitted and stained! They look worn!”
I refered her to the comments listed above. She scowled
“And what is wrong with the dishes sweety pie?” I stupidly asked her again.
“ They aren’t chipped! I don’t have to worry about cutting my tongue when I lick the plates and bowls!”
“Aren’t you sick of looking at the same design?” She asked. “You know that we have been using the same dishes for sixteen years?”
“Yes we have and that’s because we are very careful!” I answered.
Another scowl!
“You just don’t get it do you?” she stated.
She was right. I don’t get it, but then men never do seem to, “get it.” After all; Men are from Mars and women are from Venus, or Pluto, or somewhere way, way out there.
I know that my arguments are futile. I know that there will soon be shiny new silverware, and gleaming plates at our house. I know that this will happen, that is if I continue to care to eat.
And when all is said and done I know that I will truly enjoy the pleasurable feeling that one gets when inserting a shiny new knife full of peas in one’s mouth, especially when they are lifted from a sparkling new plate, and there will be no more little wounds on my lips from bent fork tines.
Happy birthday dear!
Amen
Tom Neiger