12 Minutes......

Apologies for the delay in between blogs. The last couple of weeks have been the hardest part of my journey. Although I continue to lose weight; I am no longer a candidate for the feeding tube - hooray! My diet staples of Boost and Awa Saki have been replaced by Muscle Milk (advertised as made with no milk....) since milk is a major contributor to the flem and mucus in my mouth and throat. 

My last chemo session was on Tuesday the 12th. It was gratifying to be able to walk outside knowing that I had completed my eighth and final chemo drip. The side effects have lessened but will not subside for another few weeks. I thought back to my first session where they had inadvertently forgot to schedule me for my "Day of Learning" where they were going to take me thru the process of what would happen and when. They also missed the fact that I needed to have bloodwork done. Fortunately, after talking with a supervisor and answering some questions, I was allowed to proceed - nothing like a quick google search and a memory honed by the Sisters of the Incarnate Word at Our Lady of Guadalupe! Thank you Sister Maria Ansuncion! OLG, OLG, OLG.......
  
My hair finally started to succumb to the effects of radiation and I asked Wesley to be my stylist..... Kinda funny feeling even though I knew it would come. We used a #1 on the bottom and a #2 on the top. The hair on my face has literally stopped growing and is getting brittle - not that there was a lot of it anyway, but still. As you can see from the pictures, the skin on my face is showing the side effects of the treatments. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the inside of my mouth or down my throat. I can tell that it has begun to heal as the pain has lessened; not completely but less nonetheless. I have liquid vicodin with acetaminophen and have used it sparingly. Funny how something that is supposed to stop the pain actually hurts when you take it. Remember that song about a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down? DO NOT BELIEVE THIS! Sugar and Vicodin mixed is no bueno.....When I saw my Doctor this week, he asked why I was not taking more of the vicodin. I did not have an answer. It was not because I enjoy the pain. It was not because it didn't hurt enough to take it. It was not because of some macho bull that I could take the pain (no pain, no gain, no way). It was certainly not because of the side effects of vicodin. So he said to use it more. So I  have tried to use it more often; but still can't quite jump on that bandwagon. Soooooo, now I use it when I feel it is absolutely necessary (like to eat). I deal with the side effects (Milk of Magnesia - chalk in a bottle) and get on with my primary job of healing.


12 minutes. 720 seconds. This is the amount of time it takes to cycle through the linear accelerator that delivers my daily dose of radiation. My particular dose was developed by my radiation oncologist, Dr Simko, who then enlisted a medical radiation physicist and a dosimetrist who determined how to deliver the proscribed dose and calculate the amount of time it would take the accelerator to deliver that dose. 12 minutes. 12 minutes, every day. 12 minutes, every day, 5 days a week. 12 minutes, every day, 5 days a week for 6.5 weeks. 33 days total. Monday is day 33. After your final dose, they ring a bell so that everyone knows that someone has completed their course of treatment. 


I can't wait to ring that damn bell......I'm going to ring it loud and ring it clear. Listen for the sound of that bell around 8:15am, Monday, July 18, 2011. Although I will be ringing it in the basement of Torrance Memorial Hospital, it will be loud enough and clear enough so that everyone can hear it, Big Ben will have nothing on me monday.......