Trying to Pull it Back Together

Sorry I haven't blogged in a couple of days. I do hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

When the chemo Torisel stopped working a few weeks ago it left me in quite a mess. The cancer took advantage and certainly did spread.

Over Christmas I started to feel a little shaky. I was getting dizzy, losing my balance, and generally feeling a lot of pressure building up in my head. I soon concluded that I was getting some swelling in my brain.

Friday I had an appointment with the radiation oncologist and talked to him about my condition. He prescribed me Decadron, a strong steroid that I have taken before to relieve these symptoms. I started taking them immediately, and it does seem to be making a difference. I'll have to watch this closely in the days ahead.

Yesterday I also had a bone scan. I was fortunate to receive the results of those by the end of the day. And the scan showed that I did not have cancer in any bone area except for the right hip bone, which was already known. So that was good news.

I did get three tattoos yesterday. That was the biggest surprise of the day.

I once pleaded with Alyssa not to get a tattoo, and now here I am getting three.

I was set-up yesterday in the radiation oncology department for radiation treatments to my right hip. The goal is to kill the cancer there, and thus kill the pain. To mark my exact placement on the radiation table the technician marked me with three permanent dots - tattoos.

There 'ya go. Now I know what a tattoo needle feels like. (Compared to what I've been through...that's nothing.)

The radiation treatments to the right hip will start on Tuesday and occur everyday for 10-days.

I am focused on everything I need to do to try to get back to the optimum health that I possibly can.

But I did not let it take over my Christmas. I had a wonderful time with my family and with Barb's family. And I had a wonderful Christmas Day here with Barb.