HPV HPV HPVeeeeee!

NOTE: If you have a son or daughter high school age or older - check that they have had Gardasil 9 - the HPV vaccine.  Once they get HPV (it is a very common STD), it is too late!  They will be sitting on this cancer causing virus for the rest of their life.  Girls have been getting immunised at 12-13 since 2007 but boys have only been getting immunised since about 2013, so there are many 19+ year old boys who are not immunised.
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HPV is responsible for:

• almost all cases of genital warts and cervical cancer
• 90% of anal cancers
• 65% of vaginal cancers
• 50% of vulvar cancers
• 35% of penile cancers
• 60% of oropharyngeal cancers (cancers of the back of the throat, including the base of the tongue and tonsils).

excerpt from from: https://www.cancer.org.au/about-cancer/types-of-cancer/hpv.html

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Day six of tonsillectomy recovery - not the most enjoyable exercise, but the pharmaceuticals are getting me through. I've got my paracetemol-ibuprofin concentration maximums nicely out of phase, so they tag in and out at just the right times.  Add some codeine and Endone to the background and we get the Phil Spectre 'Wall of Analgesic'.

My main mission for the last few days has been to get through it.  I don't normally advocate living this way, but in this case - I'm counting down the days!  There has been a fair bit of sleep.
Yesterday however, the throat started feeling a bit less sharp, so I had a day off the Endone.  This kept me up and about and I pottered around getting a few things done - gingerly.

Late in the afternoon, I got a call from Dr Ooi's rooms.  The results from my tonsil biopsy had comeback.  We are seeing him tomorrow, so we didn't get the full wrap, but we did get some bloody great news.  Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the cause of my cancer.  This had been suspected, but to hear it confirmed was such a relief.  As possibly stated previously, HPV related throat cancers are more likely to respond positively to treatment.  There was a huge collective sigh of relief exhaled from our household.

Further news we are waiting on is whether they can confirm that all of the throat tumour was removed.  He hope to find this out tomorrow when we meet with Dr Ooi.

After a few days of soup, custard and ice cream, some party pooper nurse practitioner associated with the oncology team, told Alison that I should be eating abrasive foods to slough / scrape the excess scab tissue.  A harsh application of counter-intuition backed by sound logic, but resulting in an uncomfortable change in diet.  She did bring a mildly effective numbing gel for me to use, so I can't complain.  I have eaten vegemite on crusty toast, a pie, meat and three veg and, after about seven years, a Kitchener bun - I might do the whole naturopath diet I reckon, but not just yet - my main focus is putting on kilos (I reckon I've lost a kilo at 74.5kg).

Tomorrow is my birthday - I am meeting Dr Ooi in the morning and then attending the Head and Neck clinic in the afternoon.  Hopefully for my birthday, I will get a mud map of my long and winding road ahead.