July 23, 2010

I am home for the weekend! It is just after 5 pm on Friday and I just walked in the door after a hard week in Zion. As we pulled onto the turnpike on Monday morning to start our drive there, we were behind a semi truck that had "Know God Know Peace" written on it except that it was faded so it read " Now God Now Peace". I felt like that was fitting for the need in my life.

We got to CTCA in time for my 2:00 appointment. Well, we were about 15 minutes late but no one cared. I met with Dr. Patel again and his nurse, Tina, who I still can't say enough nice things about. We actually had a fun appointment with jokes and laughing. It was a good start to the week and I was happy that my mom got to meet them, as Mike was with me last time. I went right over for the simulation where another mask was tightly fitted over my face. I imagine it looks like a "Jason" mask and leaves my skin looking like a waffle cone because it fits so tightly. I had started back on the steroid that I hated so much last Thursday and Dr. Patel had told me Monday that I could stop taking it, so I did. Tuesday I had my first radiation treatment, this called WBR (whole brain radiation). Everything gets a full dose with the exception of my eyes. I was told the side effects could be fatigue and some memory difficulties, possibly some vision problems or hearing loss down the road. It is okay with me when they talk about "long term" side effects because anything including long term in my life is a blessing. As long as I am here, I will deal with the effects.

Tuesday night I started to not feel well. I started to get a headache and just feel off. This continued and by Thursday I was throwing up. I talked to Dr Patel about this on Thursday and he was actually surprised that I was having some trouble. I really don't know for sure what the reasoning for the nausea, but it has continued up until this point. There is not a lot of data on the type of chemo I am on along with radiation so I suppose it could be from all of what I have had. I just felt like the enemy was up to his normal schemes. Anyhow, I started back on the steroid today to see if it helps over the weekend.

I had treatment Tuesday thru Friday of this week. The radiation itself lasts less than a minute. I go into the room, lie on the table, they put the mask over my face and lock it down to the table so I can't move. Then a blue light comes on with a buzzing sound for about 30 seconds on one side of my head. It goes off and they switch the machine to the other side of my head and it comes on for about 30 seconds longer. Done. I should be finished with radiation August 6. They are scheduling me early Friday mornings and late Monday afternoons so I can be home for 3 full nights. I am really happy about that.

Every single day that I went in for radiation, a song would pop into my head. Just one line "I have seen the healing hand of God." I knew this was Jeremy Camp, but couldn't think of the rest of the words to it. Seeing as how my treatments only lasted about a minute, there wasn't much time to try and remember the rest. I would forget about it until the next day when I would go back in when it would come to me again. On the way home at about 3:00 pm, I heard it on the radio. The camp I talk about every year that my family attends is taking place this week. I was happy that I was able to go last Thursday to Sunday before going out to CTCA. But today was their annual healing service that started at 2:30. I looked at the clock specifically at that time and thought it was fitting when a song about healing came on the radio. I am including the link if would like to listen to it.

Click here to listen to Healing Hand of God by Jeremy Camp

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