Medical Updates

I'm over halfway done with the radiation treatments, 17 down, 13 to go. I'll be finishing up with them on July 9th. The treatment has become pretty uneventful. It's not the scary, loud noise machine that runs circles around my head shooting laser beams anymore. As a matter of fact, I've come close to dozing off a few times. I think that if the bed wasn't moving to adjust for different angles, it would be much easier.

The chemo is going well too. Aside from the 1st day, I haven't felt ill at all. The anti-nausea pill that I'm taking an hour before it doing its job great. I'll have to change meds though when they put me on the full dose of chemo. I don't know how much that will be, but I'm currently on 160mg per day and we've heard that it may be around 400mg at full dosage. My hair started to get spotty on one side, so now I have a close shave on the sides and a crew cut on top.

The last couple of days, I have not been able to eat much because my taste buds are failing me. Most things don't have a lot of taste, which seems to make eating pointless. There are some things that still taste good; ice cream with chocolate syrup, cereal, bananas and spicy foods. The Dr. thinks that this will all be back to normal with a few weeks of finishing up with radiation.

I am now going every Wednesday to give blood so that they can check my white and red blood cells and my platelets. I don't mind giving blood and the nurses have been great. I think yesterday, I was finished before Deb even got her book open.

Last night while taking my chemo pills was the first time that I really felt frustrated. I was thinking how tired I was of taking pills and that this has become a part of my life. I never used to take aspirin for a headache, now I'm up to 10 pills a day.