Five Treatments Down

The Hero often marks progress in his journey by milestones along the road. Literally these are markers along the route which allow the Hero to know how far he has travelled and how much more distance he needs to cover before reaching his destination. Figuratively, this is like Julia Roberts' character trying all the different egg dishes in Runaway Bride. For her it is a measurement of her journey of self-discovery.

My personal milestone of the moment is each completed radiation treatment. Today wrapped up session five, which means only 20 more to go. I am officially one-fifth of the way through this phase of treatment.

Tomorrow is clinic day and I'll see the radiologist, or more likely, his nurse (I apparently only see the radiologist a couple of times during treatment) following my session. I'm already noticing a little pinking of the tissue on the left side. Hopefully it won't get too much worse. I treat the skin twice daily with aloe gel and I've been using baby soap to wash (as directed by the clinic).

The worst part of the treatment is the drive across the city. But I realize I have it easy compared to some of the other patients in the center. I spoke with one woman this morning who drives in two hours from her home. Then she drives back two hours. I'm guessing, like me, she must do this for five weeks. Some patients stay in the city with friends or at the "Lodge", especially if they're travelling from the far reaches of the province.

In my last post I said there are three blasts of radiation. There are actually four. One from the top, one at an angle from the top, one from the bottom and one from an angle at the bottom. They've also started covering my chest for part of each session with a bolus, a tissue-equivalent substance placed on the skin to better distribute the dose to the target site.

Overall I've been feeling good. No excessive tiredness yet. My mobility continues to improve each day...although after doing housecleaning on Saturday my arm is a little stiff again.

I received a note from Trudy last week and a phone call from her on the weekend. It was really good catching up with her again and hearing about her recent concert experiences.

I also chatted with my SunLife representative last week. Fortunately there is no pressure from that side to hurry back to work between phases of treatment. I was worried I might be required to go back to work following radiation and then have to start the leave process all over again prior to my next surgery, but that won't be the case.