22% Complete and a Field Trip

On Friday I had my 8th radiation treatment. That puts me a 22% complete. I also got the drug to protect the salivary glands. That didn't go so well. This time my blood pressure dropped a bit though it did come back. In general as the week went on I found that the radiation had a bigger and bigger impact. Now I get 2 days off! Yippee! I also changed my time on Monday to a bit later in the day and I think I may see if I can make that permanent. The mornings are good in general so if I have the radiation in the afternoon it would give the the entire morning to get things done.

One thing I am noticing now is that it feels like the tumors in the neck are smaller. I don't know if its just my imagination but they definitely feel smaller. The radiation oncologist said they would do another CT Scan about halfway in to adjust the treatment. I may ask on Monday if they can do it earlier. The one downside to radiation is that it does cause some permanent long term side effects. My thought is that we should look to adjust the treatment as needed if the tumors are shrinking to help minimize those side effects. Then again it could be my imagination and the tumors are not shrinking that much yet. They told me I probably wouldn't notice a change until 2 weeks but I started to notice it early this week. Of course the main tumor in the nasal pharyngeal area I really can't tell the size of. I do know that after a few days the sinus pressure and headaches that got all of this started went away.

Yesterday I was pretty wiped out after the radiation and crashed most of the day. Around 5PM I started to notice I was warm and checked my temperature. Sure enough I was at 101. The medical oncologist wanted to know about anything over 100 so we called. They called back and it was time for a road trip to the hospital to have some blood work done. We had to scramble a bit because both kids were out at activities. Fortunately Sue made a calling list and we were able to make sure things were taken care of. Things went pretty quick at the hospital. We had to wait around for the test results and the doctor to call back but we weren't there more than an hour so it worked out OK. My blood counts are all still good though that will change I am told. They didn't notice anything else so they sent me home to see how the weekend goes. The fever did hit a high of 102.7 but with Motrin it comes right down. Fortunately we meet with the medical oncologist on Monday to review where things are at.

This weekend I am laying low. One thing I have done is started re-reading the Patrick O'Brien Aubury / Mauturn series of books. Its 20 books written in the language of the early 19th century about the career of a officer in the British Navy. The movie Master and Commander is based on these books. (A great movie by the way.) It took awhile to really understand the language and nautical terms in the books. Eventually I purchased a companion dictionary. Its been a few years since I finished the series but now that I go back and start to read them again I find I have a much better understanding of what it going on. The books are short, less than 500 pages, and easy to pick up and put down. That makes it great reading to take with me to appointments. The series is an acquired taste but if you liked the movie and like to read I recommend them. Fortunately I have all 20 books here so I can just grab the next one as I go. I think they now sell the books in combined volumes with multiple books bound together. In some ways that makes sense. These books have often been refereed to as one long book with each book being a separate chapter.

And one last thing from the cruel irony column. Some of you may know that I am a bit of an espresso addict. I have my own home espresso machine complete with the proper type of grinder to go with it. (For those of you that don't know the grinder and coffee roast is one of the most important things in making espresso.) There is a local coffee roaster that has a few espresso bars in town that I get my coffee beans from. Its a great place but about a 15 minute drive away. While under treatments I have given up espresso for a wide variety of reasons. So of course what happens? The local coffee roaster just opened an espresso bar 2 minutes from my house. Just one of life's cruel little ironies. :-) Seriously I am OK with it and also know it will be one of the first places I visit when this is all done.