Cancer Thoughts 4

Monday, September 22, 2008

Today I went in for the trial run for the Radiation, which is done with an X-Ray instead of the normal radiation strength beam. They also tattooed my face mask, back in the old days they did the tattooing on the person, so I am still ink free.

I also wanted to talk a little about my last update; I may have given the impression that this is all horrible and I am not doing well with all of this, when the opposite is true. I am doing very well and so far I have not had any bad weeks, I have had a few bad days and some very bad moments, but over all I am doing very well.

I have a schedule now, Monday - Friday at 10:15 am I go and get a shot of amifostine, at 10:45 they start the radiation treatment and I should be through by 11:15. This week my Chemo is on Thursday at 12:15 and that takes about 3 hours. Of course there is no side effects yet, the amifostine will cause my blood pressure to drop and may make me stick to my stomach. In anticipation of this I am taking compazine every morning along with Clartin (I have no idea why I am taking the Clartin).

For the Chemo I will be taking a steroid the night before, and then the morning of the chemo. They will also give me an injection of steroids at the time of the chemo. One of the side effects of the steroids is a feeling of euphoria. My Oncologist says I will feel great the day of the chemo, he didn’t comment on how I will feel the day after but you have to take the good with the bad. I will also be taking some other medicine for the nausea.

I have 3 sisters two of them live very close to me, so I am able to have dinner and see them, we all went out to dinner Sunday night.

The following comes under the stupid thing I do.

I know they are worried about me and are concerned as I would be if they were in my shoes. So I wanted to make sure I ate all of my dinner, to show them I still have an appetite and I am OK. Now I was not hungry and I certainly should not have eaten all the food I did, and of course knowing that I will soon not be able to eat spicy food I had my fish blackened. So not only did I eat too much but I ate to much spicy food. Now we all know the results of eating to much spicy food, which is why stuff like TUMS is sold so much. Sunday night was miserable not because of Cancer, but because of stupidity. So Sandy and Gayle I am fine, I ate too much Sunday night and I will not do that again.

I am not sure what is going to happen in the next 12 or so weeks, but I do know the gastro doctor has ordered food that comes in a bag and is designed to connect to this thing coming out of the middle of my stomach. I have no intention of using the stuff. I have been told by 6 different doctors, 4 of them oncologist that I will definitely be using this product. They seem to think they know what they are talking about and everything they have told me has been consistent and happened so far, I think they all must be incredibly lucky, but it may be there years of experience and education. They all seem to think the next two weeks will be fairly easy and the side effects will start week 3 or 4, only time will tell. For now I am strong, healthy and happy as I can be, except I have cancer.

I hope everyone has a good week, I plan on having a good week and watching USC beat Oregon ST on Thursday night. The Trojan motto is Fight on, that is exactly what I plan on doing.

Fight On, Michael

P.S.
I have been asked if it is OK to forward this message, the answer is Yes. Also if you know anyone who wants to be included on these EMail please let me know and I will add them to the list. Be well.