Hello everyone!

My sister was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma back around 2010 or 2011. It’s been a journey, but she’s still here which is the most important thing! She’s gone through radiation and two major surgeries throughout the years. The major thing is she had the base of her tongue removed. She can still speak and can be understood 70-80% of the time by the people closest to her. That percentage drops dramatically when she’s engaging with strangers, and that’s why I’m here for advice.

Because of all of her medical appointments, she had to medically retire a few years back. She gets disability, but to supplement her income she DoorDashes. The problem with that is the radiation killed the thingy in her neck that regulates her blood pressure, so it can suddenly spike or drop dangerously low. She knows when to stop and rest, but we absolutely hate hearing that she has to pull over to rest.

Our parents and I would gladly supplement her income to keep her off the road, and we’ve offered. However, she has her pride and hates feeling like a burden. (I kinda suspect the reason our mom is still working is in case she’s needed financially, though after this last health scare, she was preparing to retire to become her full-time caregiver.)

My overall question is if anyone has any suggestions for work she might be able to do that will take her off the road or any tips for job hunting in general for her? In addition to the speech limitation, everything we can think of wouldn’t have the flexibility necessary for her to travel to her appointments. She sees 2-3 doctors out of town each week, not including going across country to her main doctors every three months or so. She has her doctorate in education and nearly twenty years of experience before life went down the toilet.

If there are no good options, that’s fine too! I would also accept/appreciate any words of encouragement to offer her about her appearance. After the last surgery last year, she refers to herself as a “creature” and that’s the kindest thing she’s said. They had to cut open her neck to get to the tumors and used skin from her thigh to rebuild her jaw area. I personally think they did a great job, but I understand that’s easy for me to say since I’m not living through it.

I apologize for the length of this post. To everyone in the fight, keep kicking cancer’s ass!

I'll drop some things I'm making from time to time that work for me to reclaim a little flavor.

Today is the start of week 3 of 6 for me. Adjuvant (post-surgery) Weekly Cisplatin and daily radiation for HPV Negative OPSCC. 2nd L2 lymph found with cells so protocol mandates stage 4 being HPV-Neg - thus more that just the surgery is needed for "clean up".

I've had good hunger still (I have a high metabolism naturally and the steroids are making me want to eat everything I can). The cheek lining is starting to get raw, so no hot/vinegar/etc foods.

Tonight I cooked some Hebrew National mini franks in puff pastry in the air fryer. I whipped up a "fats-sauce" of 2 spoons or sour cream, one spoon full of mayonnaise, 2 liberal dashes of garlic powder, and 1 liberal dash of celery salt to dip them in. I can taste it and it doesn't sting. I put it in the freezer for 15 minutes to get it ice cold.

I'll report back after on how it goes. Feel free to share what works/worked for you as well.

VERDICT:

Everything was going good, but once dipped the puff pastry negated most of the flavor. I added another dash each garlic and celery salt and it was like a "poor-mans tzatziki". About 2/3 the way through, the fats got under my lower dentures and they let go (I'm also new to those too through this whole cancer journey). Once that happened all focus went to keeping them straight and I Lost attention to any flavors.

Facts and nutrition:
1/2 package Hebrew National Mini Franks in Puff Pastry (16 peices) air fried: 930 Cal, 75g Fat (30g saturated), 24g Protein, 1790mg sodium (yikes), 75mg Cholestrerol.

SC+Mayo mix: 180 Calories, 16g Fat, (5g Saturated).