1-6 Geoff vs the Gamma Ray Monster

Geoff's Radiation Blog

This is the first entry and covers the period of the 15th to the 22nd October. For Blog entries after the 22nd October look the the index of titles on the right of the page just under my photo. The most recent Blog appears at the top.

15 October 2016

 This journal is starting in the middle of my radiation sessions to treat the return of thyroid cancer. I am scheduled for at least 6 weeks of radiation, 5 days per week. It is a challenge driving the 100km to the Ottawa general hospital each day but living on the river in our beautiful home makes the effort worthwhile. At first I was keeping in touch with friends and family by email but my energy is declining rapidly and managing the liquid diet and the nine medications I am on is a full time job so I will use a Blog to record my progress. I apologize for not replying to all your wonderful and supportive emails. Using Skype or the telephone to keep in touch isn't good as my voice is still quite impaired as a result of the July surgery.

18 October 2016

Day 16 of radiation. I am able to drink again now the Thrush in my throat is being treated. The liquid diet I am on consists of cartons of "Resource" which has 500 calories and is not fun as the only food but ice cream is still on the OK list. The drive to Ottawa is beautiful this time of year but on the return I mostly sleep or commune with ice packs. After most radiation sessions there is usually a 2 or 3 hour jaw pain much like an intense toothache and the ice packs really help. The narcotics manage pain well but my mind is quite fuzzy and figuring out when to take the nine different medications I am on requires a Ph.D. in Home Ec! I feel like I am a slave to my phone alarm and the worst ones are at 1:30 & 5:30 am. wake up alarms. Visits with friends are great but very tiring. That's partly because  my general energy level is low  and my voice being weak. I want to talk but 100 words is about my limit! I do seem to be complaining a lot. :)

19 October 2016

My tummy tried to vomit when I woke this morning but, of course, it was empty! I thought it was trying to tell me something so I had some real food instead of my liquid diet of Resource. What a treat to have my oatmeal! My medication for the Thrush seems to be working well so fingers crossed. My neighbour Bill drove me to Ottawa today in his all-wheel-drive turbocharged super car. We took the back roads and had all sorts of fun doing things our wives would not approve. I had a good meeting with the resident and discussed long term outcomes. He thought that if all goes well with treatment then I have a good chance of being alive in 5 years time. The oncologists are classifying my cancer as aggressive on the basis that it is quite extensive despite my recent blood work and radioactive scan that showed little cancer. There is the possibility that the re-growth dates from my initial surgery 3 years ago and that the scans after the surgery were also false negative results. It doesn't really matter and their evaluation results in aggressive treatment which may help.

20 October 2016

Day 18 for radiation today but the appointment is late afternoon and I ride with Cynthia. She is a good driver and good company. We talked about her plans to spend November in Florida. We usually join her & Moe for the month and I am sad to miss this year.

I'm not having much luck with the oatmeal so I will try to get some other flavouring methods for the Resource which only comes in Vanilla. I think that to be on it you are normally too weak to complain about the limited flavour options!

Today was my second appointment with the Cornwall physiotherapist about my shoulder and neck but I haven't been doing much work on the home exercises. I got some new exercises from him but he understands I won't be able to work hard on recovery until about the 20th November. Today I have been coughing a lot and having some breathing difficulty so the nurse spoke to the oncologist and he ordered a chest X-ray for tomorrow.

21 October 2016

I had poor sleep last night due to late treatment induced pain yesterday. In the morning we managed to get the garbage and recycling out in the pouring rain and it felt like quite an accomplishment. This period seems as stressful for Cheryl as it is for me. It is so good that people help out with the constant driving to give her some days off. I am really looking forward to the weekend and now it will only be (perhaps) 2 more weeks of treatment if the oncologist relents!

22 October 2016

Visitors are off the menu because I'm not a pretty sight! Usually the weekend is a bit of a relief and is some recovery time but now I have completed 4 weeks of radiation there is too much throat damage.  We (the docs & us) are trying steroids as a last attempt to keep the throat working before we move to tube feeding. I started steroids this morning and there is quite a bit of nausea right now and most drinks are aspirated so the trick is staying hydrated. By tomorrow we might know if the steroids are working. The only person I am glad to visit right now is the toilet but that could change. The last time I took steroids was 3 years ago just before my main surgery. We were in the Bahamas and I was feeling terrible. Just before boarding the sailboat on a Sunday I managed to see a local doc and he gave me steroids and it brought me back to life for a great week long holiday with Cheryl Kath and Neal. I felt 30 years younger overnight! For those of you that are young; make the most of it while it lasts!