Radiation

Well, here is a current update to let everyone know how things are going.

Last Wednesday, I started my radiation treatment. It wasn't quite like I thought it was going to be, but we are getting through it. I pictured a quick time/in-and-out-kind of thing. We actually thought the treatment was going to take place on Monday, but that turned out to be only a CAT-scan, feeding the anticipation. The first day took a while, I guess I should have expected that when the guy giving me the treatment told me that day would take longer than the rest. The reason being was that they had to take a few more films of me before getting started. I guess I couldn't blame them because if the radiation is off by a little bit, I could grow another liver or something--just kidding, but it could do some damage to something that didn't need to be damaged. Anyway, the procedure goes a little something like this: I lay on my back on this table, then I put my legs into these molds, and then I get strapped to the table by the plastic mask that I mentioned in a previous post. My head is held pretty tight to the table, so much so that I have some grid marks under my chin and on my nose. The radiation guys then adjust my body some and make some marks around the tattoos that I was given earlier in October. They then leave the room, and the lights go partially out. The robotic armature type device rotates around my horizontal body, and then this buzzing noise can be heard for a few seconds. I was told that this is when the actual radiation is beamed in. I don't think that I can feel anything while it is happening. I try to really focus when this happens to see if I can actually feel it, but then I am like, oh, I am just hungry, or this mask on my face is really, really tight, but I at least I can still breathe.

I am given some medication that helps with the nausea that people get when this area of the body gets radiated. Due to the location of the tumors, the radiation comes from the front, and is angled in at 3 places, instead of the 4 that I was previously told would happen. This is actually a blessing because my kidneys will receive a large amount less than there were originally going to receive.

After the first day's treatment, I was nauseous on the way home and was thankful that we had a plastic bag and some napkins in the car (so was Meredith--she was very strong). But after the first day of radiation, I have been taking more of the medication, and I haven't been nauseous since. The typical day of radiation is as follows: Meredith and I wake up and leave our house between 8:00 and 8:15. We drive to Tacoma while listening to music and cool books on CD. I then get treated around 9:30, and we leave shortly after 10:00. I don't really feel any of the effects until about an hour or hour and a half after the treatment. Then I am pretty wiped out, so I take a nap. When I wake up a couple of hours later, I am pretty much normal...And so starts another day. I can be honest and say that I am not so much looking forward to next week, but the treatments will start to seem faster because they no longer have to take the films before the treatment begins, so it will now seem like radiation-drive-through service. I am looking forward to it because my wife is there with me, and she is really encouraging me.

I am learning that things don't always have to seem great or I don't have to act like I or everything is perfect or that I am so joyous 24-7 (24 Season 5 is out though), but I (we) need to just go with it. God is so good. The fact that I am standing and walking is a testament to that. We take His gift of salvation for granted way too much, and some don't even see it, or haven't even opened it. God bless. Romans 6: 23