Wednesday Afternoon....September 12th

23 days of Radiation done......12 to go.....MAYBE....

Not Such a Good Day.

Last night Linda was nauseated and feeling the esaphagitis......although she didn't throw up, her night was miserable. So of course, today doesn't look or feel well for her. We are trying to manage the above effects with the medications....with a mixed success.

Linda is now sleeping.....trying to make up for some of the loss from last night......she isn't eating enough today either so we have to deal with that when she wakes up...feeling better I hope.

So it was a "sorry sight" walking into radiation today. And today was the day to meet with the radiation oncologist.

To make this all the "short version"...the oncologist wasn't as concerned about the look of the patient but rather the "dose volume constraints" of the radiation...I won't go into an explanation of what that means in technical terms......V20....boost fields....35%....angle changes.... etc... etc..... because it was difficult for us to understand also. What we think we understand is that only so much radiation can be given according to the volume of the lungs and the radiation field, etc. In Linda's case, there are two concerns....first, the impact on the spinal cord...with that in mind, after 26 sessions (3 more), the angle of the field has to be changes to eliminate including the spinal cord in the field. The second concern is the size of the field and the amount of radiation. Supposedly, they will be recomputing everything after next Monday to find out how much more radiation can be given....the oncologist indicated this might mean a total of 33 sessions...or 34...as opposed to the maximum of 35. He just doesn't know at this point....I guess the computer does all the calculations and gives them the answer.

So we asked about the risk involved..with lower total of doses...and there could be an impact..how much..no idea.....his dilemma is, as he said earlier, to get rid of the cancer while keeping the normal cells healthy....remember, earlier, he had said that the cancer was the easy part in terms of radiation..it is taking care of the normal cells that presents the problem.

So I think I have explained it the best I can. At this point we are concerned...not scared...but it did impact us...along with the side symptoms. Our goal now its to get the side effects under control and to be as "healthy as one can be" for these next sessions.

This is not a picture day.....enough said about that.

Linda was impacted by a saying on the wall in her dressing room:

Courage doesn't always roar.....
Sometimes Courage is the quiet voice the the end of the day saying.....
"I will try again tomorrow"

Courage is not roaring today....Linda will try again tomorrow.....

Dave