You bet, that's me! Looking at these photos is not for the faint-hearted, and I, myself, never knew what I looked like until just now when Diane showed them to me. This is my destination Monday through Friday in West Burlington, and each treatment lasts between 20 and 30 minutes. It takes one hour to drive to the Cancer Care Center and an hour home so on radiation only days, it is a three-hour commitment. When I enter the "radiation room," two wonderful technicians take my music selection for the day and then adjust me on the table where I'm covered with a heated blanket after taking off my shirt. I have a headrest and then the mask is literally bolted into place so that I cannot move my head. You see one of the bolts in the photo. This is not for the claustrophobic and it is rather uncomfortable but necessary. So far, we've played Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" and "Rhapsody in Blue," Copland's "Appalachian Spring" and "Rodeo," Bernstein's "Candide" and "West Side Story," and the soundtrack from the movie The Mission. I have no idea how I got this interest in serious music, but I've had it since I was a youth and remains with me today.
After my treatment, the lights come on, the music stops, the heavy door opens, the techs unbolt the mask, and send me on my way. As of Friday the 21st, I have completed 22 out of 35 radiation treatments and 5 out of 7 chemo therapies. Way to go, Gordy!
I had a little setback this week as I have great difficulty keeping down "product." On Friday after meeting with the oncologist Dr. El-Khoury, we made some modifications in prescriptions. We work really hard to ingest this stuff through PEG and when I "toss it," it is very depressing and painful, but the last 3 days have been very good.
The throat remains a "killer," but I am going for 6 cans of Flexsource (product) today which I have not done in weeks.
Sleep has been a real problem at night due to bloody noses, puking, and sore throat BUT we seem to have discovered a real break through. With the exception of going to the bathroom during the night which I might add is common for 64-year old men on both Friday and Saturday, I slept from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. When you can't sleep and then you can, how sweet it is. We attribute this to a combination of a 72-hour morphine patch and phenergan suppositories. I also continue to try and get ahead of the pain by having liquid vicodin twice a day. As I sit watching Diane type this, I actually feel pretty good and have not been able to say that for a very long time.
More good news: Diane and I walked from Sherman Hall to Sweeney Cleaners and back this morning and found a nickel and a penny. We are living life in the fast lane.
