It's go time.

Father's Day-2014

I have decided to break radio silence now, on the eve of my official treatment start date.  I probably should have posted earlier as there have been some delays in the actual start, but I didn't, so there you have it.  I went in last Tuesday for a final simulation where they set me up on the table as if I were getting the radiation treatment, but they only take x-rays to set my position and finalize everything in preparation for starting.  I also met with my radiation oncologist and talked with him briefly.  He was still working on the exact treatment plan and was not quite ready to turn me over to the machine just yet so he put off the start until Monday, the 16th.  No worries on my part with that adjustment, my feelings are that the more healing time my chest-neck gets, the better.  Side note: I call my most recent surgical body alterations "chest-neck" due to it being just that.  A section of my chest that has been relocated to my neck.  Complete with crazy fast growing chest hair amongst mostly hairless previously radiated sections of my old neck.  Eventually, radiation will disable the hair growing ability of that patch of skin but for now about once a week I must shave my chest-neck along with the two patches of hair that grow on my face.  It will be interesting to see if chemo wipes out what little hair is growing on my face or if I will retain my ability to grow facial hair like a 7 year old girl.

I am not looking forward to tomorrow morning, as it is with most of the things that I have to do these days but I must proceed forward.  The new mask they made me fits tightly.  Way tighter than the one I had last time and enough so that I probably will have to take one of the anxiety medications they prescribed me last time for nausea in hopes that it will help me cope a little better with the helpless feelings I get when I am alone in a room restrained to a machine with very limited ability to move.  If things get bad, I can always bend my knees upward and the radiation technicians see that through a video feed and will come into the room immediately.  But, with the mouthpiece in, I can't communicate except through grunting and hand gestures, so it will be hard to get the point across that I can't breathe or whatever the problem may be.  My mind heads to interesting places when I am undergoing treatments, but through all of it last time I never had an issue, so I am hopeful that I can make it through this time as well.  So starting tomorrow, I will start my daily radiation treatments and they will last 6 weeks (33 total).  My last one will be on July 31st.  Chemo will be administered every Tuesday and it will be the same drug I received last year, Cisplatin.  There should be a total of 6 of those given to me once a week during the course of radiation, but it is dependent on how low my blood cell counts drop.  I hope that my body responds well to treatments and that I am able to get all 6 in this time.  

My sister and her husband did something super cool that I found out about this weekend.  They designed some shirts in support of me and my ongoing battle and they happened to come in when I stopped by her house last week.  The shirts are super cool and for me a nice surprise and reminder that I am definitely not in this alone.  I am including a picture of the shirts in this post so that you all can see them.  She still has some that she is selling for $15 per shirt.  I think this is where I will abruptly end this post as I am so tired I can't see straight and I have to get up in about 5 hours so my dad can drive me back to Katy in time for my radiation.  From here on out, I will be posting more frequently as I like to chronicle all the changes that start happening as the treatments progress.