My tatoos

I felt a little rebellious today so I went out and got some tattoos, three to be exact. We met with the radiation oncologist today to prepare for radiation treatments. The plan is to radiate the entire head. There are 6 identifiable cancer spots on my brain. All are small; the largest is located in the front left lobe of the brain. The others are very small and difficult to see in the scans. The cancer was introduced through the brain fluids, so that is why we have to do a full head radiation, rather than spot treatments. The radiation will most likely start next Monday. Today I received a CT scan of my head, and I was fitted with a radiation mask. The radiation mask is custom created and fitted to my face; the intent is to protect the part of my head that we don’t want to radiate. I will receive 10 doses of radiation, one each day for 10 days. Side affects can include nausea, dizziness, disorientation, fatigue, short term memory loss, and hair loss (crap I just barely got my hair back). Both my oncologist and the radiation oncologist are optimistic that this will clear up the cancer on my brain. There are not many other options if this doesn’t work. I won’t be able to drive while receiving the radiation treatments, so Monica will now be my chauffeur, in addition to everything else she does. There is also an option to do some radiation on the cancer in the lungs at the same time. I am working with my oncologist to decide if this is the right time to pursue this, there are good reasons on both sides of that decision. I also received my maintenance drugs today. So I am feeling good today, once we start the radiation treatments next week I may not feel so well. Oh by the way the tattoos are alignment marks that are put on both sides and the middle of my chest to help the radiologist line up the radiation machine to exactly where it needs to go every time, and yes they are permanent. I guess that’s about all I know right now. This is all very scary stuff and Monica and I have certainly had our ups and downs over the last few days. But I guess I have decided that we are doing everything possible both medically, and spiritually to fix this and in the end that’s all we can do. So there is no need to cry, and no need to fret, that doesn’t do much good. We just pull ourselves up, put a smile on our face and never ever give up. Take care -Eric

good news/bad news

I had two scans on Wednesday. A C.T. scan to check the cancer in my lungs, and an MRI scan because I have been getting some unexplained head and neck aches. The good news is that the cancer in my lungs has not grown, so the maintenance drugs are doing their job there. The bad news is that the cancer has spread into my head. The MRI found spots of cancer on my brain. I received the call from doctor about 2 hours ago at work. I am at home now. Apparently the brain does a good job of blocking the chemotherapy drugs, so that explains how the cancer was able to spread to the brain without spreading in the lungs. The plan is to start radiation therapy as soon as possible next week. I will receive daily radiation treatments for the next 3 weeks followed by another MRI. Take care. -Eric

My hair

Today I had to comb my hair for the first time in 6 months. I actually had to put a little hair gel in since it is so "long". It's looking pretty good.

The neck and head aches have continued to be an issue. We discussed this with the doctor in our last visit and she seemed a little concerned. She has scheduled an MRI of my head to make sure that nothing unusual is going on up there.

Take care. -Eric

Yoga

Now every morning I wake up my body is stiff and sore, not sure why. I went to a massage therapist last week and that seemed to help a little. The therapist recommended that I try some yoga to stretch out my muscles. I found a yoga TV program on PBS, so I have been getting up early and doing it the past few days. I have discovered that I am quite possibly the most inflexible man in the world:) This yoga stuff is hard, and it hurts. But I have to admit it does make my body feel better when I am done. Take care. -Eric

haircut

I got a haircut yesterday. This is the first haircut I have had in 6 months, and it was literally "a hair" cut. Monica trimmed off one or two hairs just to smooth it out. It's still pretty thin although it seems to be filling in lately, and there are a lot of white hairs in the mix. I am hoping that these white hairs will eventually go away but I don't know if that will be the case. Take care. -Eric

update

The past week or two I have started to get body pains. The pain is primarily in my shoulders and neck and up into my head. I also have pain in my legs. They feel like muscle pains, as if I had pulled a muscle doing something. We don't know if these pains are related to the drugs, or the cancer, or something else altogether. Right now the doctor just wants us to keep an eye it and let him know if it gets worse. A couple of advil now and then seem to keep the pains tolerable. I have scheduled a massage for next week to see if that will help.

Picture

This picture is a couple of months old. I'm the good looking one. -Eric