Is It a Varied Thrush?

“Although it looks superficially like a robin, the Varied Thrush is far more elusive, usually feeding on the ground among dense thickets.” – (https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/varied-thrush). There’s more than one kind of thrush… there are 10 varieties of thrushes listed in the Audubon guide to North American Birds. Unfortunately, the variety of thrush that I am currently familiar with is the fungal infection on my tongue… Here’s a picture:

This was the day before I called the triage nurse about my white tongue.

I have had the usual thick spit and bad taste in my mouth, and tongue feeling weird because of those factors, but on Monday I noticed that my tongue actually looked coated with slime. I thought it was just related to the thick spit, etc. Tuesday it still looked coated and whitish so I took this picture. Wednesday it still looked white (and maybe a little whiter than this) so I thought I’d better call the triage nurse at NorthStar to make sure she didn’t think it was thrush. Mmmm, yeah, she thought it was thrush. So my oncologist prescribed medicine. Now I have medicinal lozenges that I melt on my tongue 5 times a day for the next 7-14 days – Clotrimazole. the lozenges aren’t too horrible… a slightly minty chalky tablet that’s a little smaller and twice as thick as a dime. Apparently thrush is not uncommon with chemo. Not only does the body have a hard time fighting bacterial and viral infections, but it doesn’t do as well fighting fungal infections either.

In other news… I’m finally feeling pretty good, and was able to work a good part of the day yesterday and today. That third round of chemo took a lot of wind out of my sails with overall fatigue, as well as the usual complaints.

Kevin cooked steak, twice-baked potatoes, and made a salad for supper tonight – it was really good! I might have taken a picture of this feast for you, but I ate it instead 🙂 So here’s a picture of a varied thrush, which is much more attractive than my tongue thrush!

Okay, so it’s actually a drawing of a robin. I saw some beautiful pictures of Varied Thrushes online, but decided I shouldn’t “borrow” other people’s work… copywrite and all… Check out the link in the first paragraph to see a Varied Thrush!