Friday, February 9, 2007

Chris came with to my RT this afternoon and got to see everything and take some pics as well. Both he and Andrea came back to the treatment room and got to see my strapped down and Tod explained everything everything to them about what was going on and even how they aligned me with the machine. I'll get some pictures up this weekend that Chris took. Without having to do x-rays the treatment goes really quick.

Earl was sore again afterwards and that's a good thing! He needs to quit complaining and get to shrinking!

Without the meds for the acne it came back a bit today on the face and felt like on the back. At least the mouth is in good shape still, let's hope it stays that way.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

The boys and I are glowing in the dark! Today was the first day of Radiation Therapy. We started out doing the x-rays that we would have done yesterday. The x-rays took awhile and man was the saliva glans working in overtime. It is extremely difficult to swallow with a mouth piece and a mask that starts mid breast and up holding you very tightly to the board! Got a little anxious there a couple of times...should have taken that ativan! Today they took x-rays from all 5 angles that they are shooting from and once a week they will take 2 x-rays for a quality assurance check of my alignment. Nothing really medically used with them but getting me aligned with the machine. So between the lasers pointing at the tattoos, the balls on the frame of the bit block mouth piece and the x-rays, they are very precise in what they are doing.

After they were done with the x-rays they started my first radiation therapy. They are shooting from 5 different angles and hitting each angle twice. One of the angles gets about 7 seconds, another gets around 12 seconds and the other 8 times are 20 to 30 seconds. Doesn't really take to long at all.

After they were done Tod showed me all about the machines and answered all my questions. Then we headed out to the waiting area and Andrea and I went to talk with Phyllis, Dr. Leonard's nurse. These people are incredible and spend as much time as you need to answer all the questions and concerns. Phyllis is a great help and has answered more questions than we can even remember the answers too! Today she gave us a cook book for cancer patients, a thermal lunch sack with Boost and other good calorie stuff in it and tons of advice, it really helped both of us.

The nose acne is drying out and now it's all just crusty! Earl is a bit sore tonight, not sure if it was the mask or the RT or maybe both!?!?

I'm going to have Andrea take some pictures of the RT room and me in my mask strapped down to the board tomorrow at my session so I can put them up on the blog so everyone can see.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Whoa! Little late on this post! Benedryl is a great sleep aid for me! I always get a dose of it before I get the Erbitux and yesterday it put me out!

We got a call from the Littleton office while at the Parker office that they were having computer issues and would not be able to do my x-rays on Wednesday, so they will do them first on Thursday and then do the first Radiation Therapy afterwards.

All went fine at Dr. Reznick's, Earl has grown a bit but that is because we haven't started the RT yet. Erbitux alone as a regiment will not shrink or make the cancer go away and has to be used in conjunction with radiation therapy. My blood looks good in all areas and the only affects that I am having from the Erbitux is the acne rash, and that I have real good!!! Good enough that the doc has got me on Tetracyline to hopefully help clean it up and an over the counter but behind the counter lotion called AmLactin for the dry skin. The lotion is a good thing, my forehead is so dry that it make it look like I have a bad case of dandruff.

Because we had to shuffle thing around for the x-rays, we had an hour break between the Erbitux and the doc so we ate lunch at the hospital. Parker Adventist is a nice facility and the food and prices at the cafeteria were both good. I don't like all the growth we've experienced but it is nice to not have to spend an hour one way to get to the hospital.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

And so it begins. Today was the start of daily appointments (on weekdays) from today through April 2. Today was the quick and easy one getting my weekly blood drawn for testing. Tomorrow we have Erbitux, Dr. Reznick, and final x-rays before the radiation therapy. I have gone in and added the RT's to the calendar, they will be Monday through Friday at 3:15 pm. I modified the appointments for Wednesday and once we figure out how we will rearrange the Erbitux appointments I'll modify them as well.

It seems that the acne rash is beginning the downhill slide. I think I was at the top of the hill on Sunday and Monday. We both think it is starting to fade, the amount of new zits has decreased dramatically and a lot of them are fading away. The nose is still the worse but not a lot of new, it's still pretty crusty and I am feeling like I have a Carl Malden like nose! I can't say that I'll miss it!

Monday, February 5, 2007

Last weekday without an appointment! Tuesday I get some blood taken so that will count as an appointment. Had to juggle around some stuff again as on Wednesday I need to be in for x-rays in final preparation for RT which will start on Thursday. So...I changed the Erbitux to 11:00 am, moved the Lasik Plus to next Monday and kept the appointment with the doc at 1:40 pm.

I need to try to get the calendar updated and will as soon as I get some time. I think I will be taking Wednesday off just to save some stress!

Still hanging in there and enjoying the warmer weather finally! We're hoping to see the street again in front of the house!

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Sundays are kind of my recharge day and it seems my funk day from the Erbitux. Not really sure how to describe it, just a valley in the week of the drugs I guess. It does seem that Sunday is the day that the drugs kick pretty hard on the face as well. I put up the pic on Saturday and now have a bunch of white heads on the forehead as well.

A new week and another day closer to the end of the zits! I'm ready for it to be gone!

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Not a lot to report today, trying to take it easy and stay rested up. We did take a picture of the zits again to put up here.

As you can see the Erbitux is working really good!!! It is limited to mostly the neck and above, with some on the chest and back. The worst is probably in the ears although it does make the head itch due to the ones in my hair.

Another day done, another day closer to the cure!