Not much new for the day. I did get a call from the RT folks to see if I could come in a half hour early so I did. 6 down 32 to go! I was a bit on the tired side most of the day and took a short nap after I got home. The face has cleared up very well with some rash/acne still there but looking more like normal teenage stuff instead of the explosive face.
The weekend is here and so is the taking it easy.
We had better luck today with getting things done. I got my Erbitux with no problems in the morning but it did run over on the time estimates that we were hoping to achieve, so needless to say I had to cancel the dentist appointment. We got done in enough time for Andrea to get me back home before she headed off to her appointment.
At RT today there was a lady there who was getting her last treatment. She had missed it the day before due to the systems problems and was a bit down on Wednesday as it had some special meaning for her. When she came out of her RT we all clapped and congratulated her and you could see she really beamed. I look forward to that final day as well.
The fatigue is getting to me pretty good and I'll probably be going on leave sooner rather than later.
I had a big lunch and then fell asleep after we got home from RT and when I woke up I really didn't want to eat so I thought I would try one of the Ensure type drinks. Wow, nasty!!! They are really gross! Andrea mixed me up a shake with a chocolate one and some vanilla ice cream and that was OK. By themselves...pukage!!!
Busy day but didn't get a lot done! We did get some good news from Dr. Reznick, who put the ruler to Earl again. Earl doesn't like the RT very much and has shrunk 1.5 cm in both length and in width! This is great and the direction the we like to see things go!
After that we went to the blue chairs to get my Erbitux. We got the benedryl started but then discovered that UPS had not yet delivered the Erbitux. It was delayed due to the storms around the country and showed a status that it was out for delivery. So we stopped part way through, capped off the line and went downstairs to eat some lunch. After we ate we came back up and hung out in the waiting room to see if it would make it. It didn't. So we headed home and I took a little snooze before we headed off to RT.
When we got to RT, we were informed that the IMRT had broke down and we were waiting for a tech to show up. We went in and sat in the waiting room with other patients. Finally they came out and let us know that the tech was not anywhere near there and it would be a while before he arrived. So home we went.
UPS did arrive later in the day and we now are scheduled to go in at 10:15 to get that done and then off to the dentist, then Andrea's doctor appointment, then to RT! It will be a busy day!
Tuesday started out getting my blood taken, my weekly check. I'm taking the nausea meds now and am able to return to normal eating and drinking. The day went fairly normal I did spend some time with HR to gather up the forms I need for FMLA and STD just in case I need them. The fatigue already is wearing on me and the thought of working through this is starting to fade. No need to push it to the envelope all the time; need this one to be on cruise control and to get healed up the best I can as quickly as I can.
Phyllis had me come in 15 minutes early today as they started me a new med called Ethyol that is designed to help keep my mouth healthy (protect salivary glands and help sores heal faster) while receiving RT. It's given as a shot, today I got it in the arm. No big deal at all kind of felt like someone gave me a frog in the arm but I didn't seem to have any side effects. That's a good thing. I was pretty tired last night and took a nap. It's amazing that I can take a nap and then when I go to bed I am out when the head hits the pillow!
Tomorrow is Erbitux day and RT so I'm sure I will sleep very well tomorrow night!
Been a couple of days since I blogged...have just been busy!
Monday was a pretty normal day, work and then off to RT. After finishing RT I met with Dr. Leonard and Phyllis. All is looking good so far except that I lost 3 pounds! Not good! I did have a lot of nausea on Sunday and again Monday morning and wasn't eating as well as I had been or wanted to.
I spoke with Dr. Reznick's office and Andrea went in the afternoon to pick up some anti nausea meds for me. They definitely help and I was able to eat a good dinner.
This is my mask that they use to strap me down to the RT table for my treatments. There is a hole at the mouth so I can get my bite block in and three holes in the forehead for aligning everything to my tattoos. The pins in the blue frame are what lock me to the table and keep me from moving. It's not as cool as the chain mail coif that I made but it works for what they are doing!
This is me strapped to the table in my mask and I have my bite block in (my lips aren't green! its the mouth piece!). You can see the frame on the bite block and the balls on it really lit up from the camera flash. The balls are part of a room GPS type thing that lets the computer know where I am. Once they align me to the room and and the machine to me then everyone leaves the room and my treatments begin. Once a week they take a couple of x-rays for quality purposes just to make sure that I am still in the same spot that I started in.My bad day hit a day early this week. The Erbitux "hangover" had been a Sunday occurrence up until now, and it hit a day early! It's my "bad skin day"! When it hits, it's much like a hangover as I'm tired and worn out but the worst part is my skin is really sensitive. Taking a shower even sucks as I feel every drop of water pounding onto me. About all I do on that day is chill out and do nothing. So that's what I did! I pretty much vegged out in front of the TV all day. Bob and Jen came over for dinner and we just hung out and relaxed.
