Really enjoying having my brother over here. Unfortunately the snow is melting away but we did get to enjoy taking a morning walk through the pristine snow-covered wonderland yesterday while the turkey was cooking. Today he was given a tour of the radiation vault at Northwest Community Hospital. He knows more about the radiation treatment I'm receiving than I do - I thought I just lay on the table and get fried, but apparently there's more to it than that!

My brother arrived from England today for Thanksgiving. Perfectly timed for his arrival is our first snow of the season. We couldn't be more thankful!

Saw the ear, nose & throat specialist again today. It's amazing how effecient these guys are! I spent 10 minutes waiting to see him, he came in and spent about a minute with me (looked down my throat and asked me to repeat the letter 'E' a number of times), and bam that's an $85 consultation! Hard to say if my paralyzed left vocal chord is making a recovery although he noticed my stronger voice - might be my right vocal chord compensating. So we get to do this again in three months and hopefully we'll see a noticable improvement by then.

Right on schedule, radiation related side-effects are starting to occur. The promised sore-throat has surfaced, just in bloody time for Thanksgiving. The sensation is quite strange really; feels like each mouthful gets stuck on its way down.

One might argue that now is not the time to make some major changes in life. On the other hand, life really is too short. Seriously! So, after a seven year stint with my [t]rusty green Hyundai Accent GT (no laughing please), we decided to give it up before it gave up on us (as it happens, the radio packed it in yesterday morning). Having noted Owen & Tamlyn's past good experiences at CarMax, we thought we'd try them out too (I am a HUGE SUCKER when it comes to car dealerships and the sinister sales rep - CarMax, made me feel less like that). So after a long miserable day in the rain we left driving our new, er, used 2001 Lexus RX300. Very happy until we got to experience its less than desirable fuel consumption, but at least our buns will be toasty warm through the winter. No, I guess I'm still a sucker after all. Any one fancy a guess at how much I was able to make on my Hyundai?

After failing to put together a "shave your head" party, we finally managed to shave my head last night. Most of it anyway. Innochka is still fighting with the idea that I will lose my hair and so we opted for a 1/4 inch trim instead of going completely bald; one step at a time. Maybe next weekend we'll take it completely off. Now I'm on the lookout for some interesting rugs.

Completed the second chemo treatment today and have only suffered some mild side-effects thus far, the worst being flu-like muscle aches in the back and neck areas as well as fatigue. The week of radiation has had no affects that I can tell. Inna, though, is faring a lot worse, battling something similar to bronchitis. Home is starting to feel more like a sanitorium.

Rant: Isn't it just terrible that Bush gets another 4 years? Seriously feel that half the population have terrible and questionable values and should probably be in a country unto themselves. After listening to NPR and how the Christian conservatives were going off on how important it was that gay marriage/unions not be allowed as well as abortion and that's why they were compelled (by their ministers) to get out and vote for Bush. Well, how unimportant is it that 100,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq? God, according these guys, has given us a choice to make in our lives. I'm so grateful, that they've taken it upon themselves to make the decisions to the rest of our choices.

Chemo yesterday went off without a hitch. Although I did feel loopy when the Benadryl took effect. That in itself made the whole experience worthwhile. No nausea just yet, and that is probably thanks to the antiemetics I'm on. Radiation today was also uneventful, although I'm told I get to look forward to a sore throat in a couple of weeks.

Woweeee, things are picking up some pace. Saw the radiation oncologist today. After some tests, we established that there is no rib metastasis (mentioned in the PET scan) which is a good thing. Chemotherapy starts Wednesday while radiation therapy starts Thursday.