What a week !

On Thursday, 4 Feb, I went for my mask fitting and radiation simulation. I’m writing the President and letting him know I’ve found a new enhanced interrogation technique that makes water boarding obsolete. If we want answers to any questions just send the guilty party down to the radiation office in the basement of Wilford Hall Medical Center and have them fitted with a radiation therapy mask, after 20 minutes they’ll be singing like birds.

They lay you down on the treatment table, have you put in your teeth radiation scatter guards and then have you bite down on something that looks like a mini-fudgecycle that’s made out of Styrofoam. This of course gets the drool machine going. All this time they’ve been warming up a sheet of plastic mesh to make it soft and pliable. As you’re laying on the table with your mouth guards in, sucking on the styrofoam tongue depressor they drop this hot mesh over your head and upper chest and ratchet it down. Kind of like those vacuum toys we had as kids, heat up a small sheet of plastic, place it over a mold then turn on the vacuum and wha-la you have a perfect impression of my head. This thing takes about 15 minutes to cool and become rock hard. Its purpose is to lock your head and upper torso into the same position every time you come in for a treatment. I’m not claustrophobic so that didn’t bother me all that much, what did get my attention was the fact that I was laying on my back with this huyanker in my mouth, drooling and having a very hard time swallowing. (hence the letter to the President) Early on in the radiation treatment this won’t be too bad, but once my throat starts giving me problems I can see where I’m going to be one uncomfortable hombre. Later on that same day we did a CT scan to set-up the radiation treatment aiming points. They used the lock-down mask and the tongue depressor thingy again. I’m beginning to think that maybe surgery wasn’t such a bad option.

I also went and got pre-admitted for my procedures on Monday the 8th. That’s when they will be putting in the PEG and CVC. I’ve got to stay over night in the hospital so they can monitor the PEG, they don’t want my stomach contents leaking out into my abdominal cavity. They tell me that’s a bad thing. So it’ll be like a big sleep-over, movies, pop corn and maybe a pillow fight with some retired Korean War Ace with a colostomy bag.

Friday I went in and saw Ms Phyllis at speech pathology and she gave me a bunch of exercises for my tongue and throat. We were like a couple of kids sitting across a table from each other sticking our tongues out at each other and making silly noises to stretch my vocal cords. I make light of all this, but I know it’s all good therapy to keep my throat in shape and ensure my ability to continue to swallow.

I also met with Nurse Sandra; she went over my chemo therapy and all of the side effects of Erbitux, nutrition, the PEG and CVC, the importance of staying healthy and what to do if I get a fever or start feeling real bad. She seems very concerned and caring. She must have one hell of a positive attitude to continue working in a chemotherapy clinic. I’ve been looking around and there are a lot of seriously sick people around there. Some newbie is going to see me in 4 – 5 weeks and think the same thing.

So, it’s been an interesting week. So far I’ve been keeping a positive attitude and have been able to make what I think are the right decisions for my treatment. My wife, Terry has been a good sounding board and has provided the needed course corrections when I’m unsure of something. Therapy starts next week with my first treatment of Erbitux and the following week starts my once a day radiation treatments. In the future I may not be as flippant and sarcastic about my daily happenings, but rest assured I’ll make up for it when this is all behind me.