1 Down, 24 to Go

Five weeks of treatment (every other week for nine weeks) with five days of treatment per cycle. That's 25 total days of treatment and I've got one of them down. And, only five of the treatment days are combo Radiation/Chemo days and I've got one of those five out of the way. So dang, this treatment thing is just flying along!

The day was a bit confusing because of some mix-ups of where we were supposed to be when between the Radiation Folks and the Chemo folks. Once we worked through that here's how the day went. Show up at 8:00 at the cancer center to have them install my pump that I'll wear all week and, slowly over the week, it will dispense a Capri-Sun-sized packet of drugs. From there I went a mile down the road to KU Med Center for my first radiation treatment. While I'm there on Monday mornings I meet with Dr. Wang (Radiation Guy) to check in and see how things are going. A mile back down the road to the Cancer Center for and I.V. drip Chemo Treatment. That takes an hour and a half or two hours. Then I have a few hours to kill. Not enough time to go to work or, later, home so I'm searching out local haunts where I might be able to hang out, get internet access to do some work. Found a good coffee shop on the Plaza. We'll see how long that works. Then, late afternoon I go back for my second Radiation treatment of the day and it's off to home.

The rest of the week I'll take my chemo drugs at home, wear my fanny pack with the pump and go to a morning and afternoon Radiation treatment. Should have 7 or so hours between treatments to go to work as long as I can or go home later when I'm not up to going to work.

So that's the routine. I forgot the Camera today but did get a picture of me bolted down to the table with my mask using my camera on my cell phone. Not a great picture but it gives you an idea. If I remember I'll bring the camera and get a better picture tomorrow and replace the picture I'm posting tonight.

And how do I feel? Absolutely fine so far. During the treatments today they gave me some formulation of Benadryl that they told me would put me to sleep. Didn't quite do that right away but made me pretty drowsy. Jenny and I hung out in the Visitors' Lounge for a while after the treatment and I did wind up snoozing for 45 minutes or so. But with a nap under my belt, I felt fine. They keep telling me this will come on gradually over the first 2-3 weeks so we'll see. So far so good.