Second week of chemo down

Just a quick note. I don't even have any pictures to share this week. How could the week be gone already, anyway? I guess time flies when you are racing between work and home and hospital, sigh. Ed done good again. Little c still hasn't come up with a pitch he can't hit. This week, he refused the anti-nausea medicine that caused so much constipation last time, and paid for it with a lost meal, but won in the long term. He lost 5 pounds but has gained 1 back in the day he's been home. His skin is dry and flaky on his hands, his mouth is very sensitive to acids and chocolate (why chocolate, for heaven's sake?), but his back is feeling better and his swallowing is better. Hooray! The doctor that he talked with this week was as optimistic as the doctor he talked with before. It looks as if he is responding to treatment very well.

This week, I got to see the radiation machine and the control room. What fun! It's a big machine, with X-ray and radiation arms that rotate around the table. The table position is adjusted from the control room while looking at a screen divided into 4 parts. The images are of the X-ray image from the original alignment and the X-ray that was taken that session. The controller moves the table around until the new X-ray image lines up with the original alignment. She hits the Start button, and the radiation arms, which are full of collimated sources, move to 5 locations and irradiate the cancer. Since there are multiple sources, the highest amount of radiation goes to where the tumor is biggest, and less goes to smaller areas, avoiding the healthy tissues. From the control room, the pictures are taken from the perspectives of the arms, so it's enough to make you dizzy watching it. Incongruously, one of the images is of the waiting room outside!

Happy Thanksgiving week, everyone. We have lots to be thankful for. Not least is that Neal and Deanna are on their way here.