And Now We Begin..............

   Today is 06-26-2019. Today has been so well built up for and a long time coming. Today I started my chemo and radiation. I will do this for two weeks then they will run a CT Scan to see if the Pericardial Effusion and see if it has expanded. If so it may indicate cancer has breached the wall and can spread all over the body. Let us hope that isn't the case. Since the cancer is in the brain and both lungs I am listed as a stage 4. He says too that because of the lethal doses I took of chemo before, he didn't think my system would tolerate it well. He is looking for my T Cells or Nutrifils to weaken too much.   

  So after I get my blood drawn we get to talk with Dr Flanners. He is less optimistic but a realist. He said he could quote me stats on expected longevity and I could even find that myself, but it would reflect old data. I remembered reading about Throat Cancer and how the odds are slim to none on survival, yet here I am 9 years later. For the matter, Charlie is still here, though he has non-small cell lung cancer. My wife told him I was nervous about the chemo, the last chemo I did was like falling into Hell for a week after, and worse than that while it was going in. Oh, there was such pain, pain that lasted for days. Dr Flanners said they would give Attavan in my Port. 

  As we walked into their Chemo Hut it reminded me of how UT Hospital was set up when I did mine, one big room. The chairs are old just like UT was. A few Nurses greeted us and they came by with a bag that local churches donated. Inside was a puzzle book, small Bible quotes book, pen, lotion, chapstick, a letter from the Nurses, I think soap and some other things. UT didn't and to my knowledge still does not do anything like that. I had my pick of chairs, they weren't very busy but still busier than I would want to be. There was just one community TV hanging on the Wall in our section so they changed it for Denise since we were the only ones in that side of the room. It was time for Lets Make a Deal and the Price Is Right to come on. The Benedryl it first just in case I had a reaction and it almost put me to sleep so I knew the Attavan was going to finish it, and it did. I kept waking up, sometimes to people staring and sometimes to people not paying attention. One lady looks at Denise and said you poor, poor woman, and we all laughed. 

   After that was all said and I took my first radiation dose. I was nervous, oh my was I nervous. It is nothing like head and neck cancer where the bolt you to a table the tie your feet and hands together. I had to be sedated almost every time I did one, and I have done plenty. Again, this was nowhere near that. As a matter of fact, I'm driving myself there today.