small updates

for the completionists, and the ones who have hodgkins who will come later who will want to know all...

About a week out of treatment weird skin things started to happen. Not just one, or two, but three things at the same time. I got this weird rash on my wrist that went away, then came back, then went away again in the space of two weeks. During this time a strange grouping of red dots appeared just below my left sideburn (at first i thought i had cut myself shaving, but it was in fact a skin 'happening'). And to top it all off (literally) my scalp started going nuts with itching...

Since this is the year of strange medicine for me, I figured i would play it safe and see the dermatologist before this devolved into another year of chemo (and another blog). Luckily all was well, by the time I got there the rashes had gone down and the scalp healed itself (with the help of some tea tree oil). The doctor explained that much like a cold sore virus that lays dormant for years only to rear its ugly head, little things that the chemo and radiation had repressed were coming out of the woodwork that is my skin. As I had seen they would soon run their course and soon (hopefully) I will be skin-ailment free.

just so you know! thanks to all for the well wishes, flowers and the surprise party... you are so very kind

DONE

yee-haw! it is over... the treatment that is. radio and chemo, done. now i just go in for a few follow ups and they will PET scan me every six months for the next five years to make sure its not relapsing.

but for now its over, which is nice. thank you all for your well wishes and thoughts.

they let me keep my face mask from radiation, which you see above

be well

j

Two more days of Cancer

and then some time passed
Notes On Radiation-
-5 days a week I rise at 6am to be at the hospital at 730 am. This earliness allows me to get treated before the rush and to get to work on the prior rather than latter side of normal business hours. If i miss this window and have to go during the day it's around an hour wait plus. The way i have it set up now I get into work around 815.
-of course this would mean going to sleep at 10 if you wanted a solid eight, but that doesn't really happen. So while they said that fatigue would occur as a result of the radiation, i can't really tell if its because of that or just because of only getting six hours of sleep a night
-actually i've survived on a lot less then six hours a night, so i guess it must be the radioactive lasers beams they are shooting me with.
-so you get into the treatment center and head for the basement where they keep the radiation machines
-you remove the garments and put on a robe
-they lie you on a table and secure you; in my case they have made a mask for my face so my neck (which is receiving treatment) doesn't move during laser time.
-after they align me (thanks to the small tattoos they gave me) they flip the switch and deep inside the machine the radiation is created. -it shoots out at me for about 10 seconds. there is a small lead device that changes its shape depending on what they are trying to hit. this has the effect of blocking the rays from hitting vital organs such as the heart and the lungs.
-it then rotates and hits me from the back
- so you don't freak out when you are strapped into the machine someone has pasted a picture of a puppy next to a kitteh on the arm of the machine above you. when it rotates around then there is a giant mural of a blue sky and green tree branches. very relaxing, but not as fancy as the original room they had me in which had illuminated cherry blossoms on the ceiling.
- when they turn on the laser beams there is a distinct smell of electric oxygen and sulfur. this smell sometimes sneaks up on me during the day but can be banished with thought and perhaps a cookie
-quick and painless while being zapped
-usually i lapse into an absence of thought like sleep
-a few days after it starts you start to notice your suntan in the spots where it hits you. you also notice a little bit of being tired. -its never really bad, but its never really good. on an average day i feel about 64 out of a 100. kinda like it's always 545 and you're about to leave work. all day long.
-its more of a general malaise than any type of nausea
-but hey its short, and in two days it will be done
-and then maybe my diamond-pyramid-sunburn will go away