Flying Solo

These past few days I've been bouncing around the empty corridors of our home; I'm all alone. Inna head off to France last week to escort her students on their Spring Break exchange program with a school in Le Havre. And to help me out, Danny's grandparents have taken him for the 10 days that Inna is away. I've got to say that prior to their departures, I was kinda looking forward to some peace and quiet. Now that I have it, all I can say is that I miss my Innochka and Dannichka terribly! I've nobody to pick on or scold and that's no way for the man of the house to live. Seriously, I'm really looking forward to our reunion this Sunday. And to tide me over, I still get to spend some evenings with our increasingly talkative little boy.

6 More Treatments

Only six more treatments to go before I can kiss this whole brain radiation sh!t goodbye! I mentioned in a previous post that fatigue was getting me down a little. I didn't even begin to understand what fatigue meant at that point. Now I fall asleep on a dime. Fell asleep on the examination bed in the doctor's office today ... twice! So once it's all over apparently it can take up to a month until my body has recovered. Will somebody wake me up then?

Gone Tomorrow

Gone Tomorrow
Originally uploaded by Macknal.

Aaaah, that's much better.

Hair Today

Hair Today
Originally uploaded by Macknal.

My radiation treatment is going "well". So far, all I can complain about is the incredible fatigue and a very itchy scalp. I'm at about the half-way mark in the process and they warned me that the itchiness will get worse and that I'll also lose my hair. So to combat that I'm going to get my head shaved this evening. This photo is really for Inna and my mom who are not too fond of me without any hair. Apparently my bean is quite an odd shape!

Whole Brain Radiation

The decision over my radiation regimen has been made, but not without some back-and-forth between the doctors: twenty five days of whole brain radiation starting tomorrow. I've got to say, I was hoping for the stereo tactic treatment (like cyber-knife, gamma-knife, focused radiation) which would have spared my "healthy" brain paying attention to the tumor bed and the small tumor left untouched by surgery. However, as this will also spare any unseen tumors and metastatic cancer flakes that probably exist elsewhere in my brain, the more prudent approach is to zap the whole darn thing. Usually given over ten days, the lower daily dose applied over twenty-five days together with my youth and general good health (hehe) should conspire to limit the side-effects of this process. I'm not altogether fond of the idea of going through early-onset dementia, although this could prove quite amusing for the rest of you.