Two Firsts...

Yesterday I had the first (of 30) IMRT radiation treatments, and my first dose of Chemotherapy.
We showed up for the IMRT appointment 30 mins early, and they called us 45 mins late. That caused a lot of anxiety to build up waiting all that time. Once I got in there, they took about 20 minutes making sure I was lined up properly, then the actual treatment was only 6 minutes. The treatment is painless, and sounds kinda like a Pink Floyd Song. This pattering sound rotates my head around while changing loudness. Kinda sounds like people running around me while strumming on a washboard.   

Emotionally, there was a kind of sinking feeling, or a point of no return. This treatment should help, and might cause more serious problems. Up till that moment, I was facing that prospect. Now I have passed that decision.

The first night of Chemo passed with little fanfare too. Stood there with the pills in front of me for a couple minutes, facing the same feeling. I took them and had an upset stomach that night, but it was also a very stressful day.

A couple of posts ago, I spoke of the mask they made to hold my head in place during radiation. I asked the Nurse to take some picks...here they are:

The tape with the marks line up with lasers on the machine to coordinate where my head is with respect to the radiation. My nose is much smaller when viewed in person without the mask.

Radiation therapy schedule set, looks like I'll be going back on STD

After a nice weekend last week, this week was pretty hard to deal with. I still cannot sleep well, even after the doctor changed my prescription from Ambien CR to Fluvoxamine and Lorazepam. One of the things that gets me confused is that the doctors use easy to understand name brands for drugs when you talk to them, then you pick up the prescriptions from the pharmacy  and you get bottles with these crazy names that a scientist made up. There should be a law on drug names such that a) they have no more than three syllables and b) do contain the letter 'x'. Anyway, the new prescription is not working either. I feel sick and like I need a lot more rest, but my body will stay asleep for very long. The doctor also doubled my anti-seizure medication (Keppra) to 1000mg 2x/day. The radiation oncologist had  suggested that my cognitive lapses were actually small seizures, and were hoping to minimize these with the higher dose.

All of this dealing with prescriptions is another source of anxiety for me. I never liked taking drugs for anything, and usually just let my body fight off any sickness naturally. Out of all the prescriptions I have taken through this ordeal, the only one I can tell is working is the Norco pain killer. The rest make me feel like I am a pawn in the drug industry.

I also had a conversation with my boss about working from home during the treatment. He was more concerned that I have enough rest to recover and suggested that I go back on Short Term Disability (STD). So I will take at least a couple weeks off and see how I feel, then go from there. I have mentioned it before, but I will say it again. I am blessed to work for a company that is so considerate of my situation, and have coworkers who care about you and are willing to help out. Thank you to everyone there.

Next week we are going to FLA, and the treatments start when I get back.