Down with the sickness

So radiation day 2 went WAY better than day 1, as they had predicted.  They said it should go a little quicker in the next few days and then it will just become routine.  One pleasant silver lining in all of this is that (thus far) all of the people that I am dealing with in all of my treatments and appointments are ridiculously nice and try to make everything going on as comfortable as they can.  The machine took a little different pass today as it applied the radiation, so I am interested to see if that changes every day or if this will be the new normal. I could again feel sensations when the radiation was active, but the whole experience was much less unpleasant.

When I came back out into the radiation waiting area, Jessica was talking to a couple that was sitting there.  I got a glimpse into what these treatments can do to me, and it was not pretty.  He had cancer on his tongue and was currently going through the same neck radiation and chemo that I am scheduled to have.  He was much further along in treatment and the side effects were really starting to adversely affect him.  It was good to see in a sense to see what the future could look like, but also to try everything in my power to do all I can to try and manage the overall effects.  I have to be diligent in caring for my mouth, that much they have hammered on me and I have now seen the effects that lapses can produce.

As I type this, I am undergoing my first actual chemotherapy treatment.  I am receiving a single drug called Cisplatin.  From what I have read about it, it is one of the first chemo drugs to be approved by the FDA for cancer treatment and it is one of the most severe in terms of causing nausea.  The treatment is about 3 hours total.  They start me with a cocktail of a steroid (that supposedly helps with nausea in the days that follow) and a more immediate acting anti-nausea medication.  That takes about 30 minutes and then they do a little flush and hook up the big boy.  The cisplatin will be administered over the course of a two hour period.  I have a nice little room that I am sitting in for this part of treatment with my own TV and recliner.  Nothing to report on the first chemo session other than it was much better than the first radiation treatment.  The IV stick was a little painful and the nurse was a talker, but both of those things are manageable.  
We were faced with some harsh realities today in regards to what all of this treatment can possibly do to me, but the hope is that I can stay on top of everything and that my body responds well.  Checking out for now, but I will post if anything interesting happens before tomorrow.