X-Ray That's the glow in the dark thing. Right ???

I went to radiology oncology today. This is the first appointment I’ve had in a good while that went easy. It was mostly a meet and greet. The Dr. has been doing this for over 20 years and we have great confidence in him. He talked about the advances that medicine has made in this area since he’s been doing this and I have to say that if I had to have it, now is a better time than even five years ago. I asked him a question about 3D imaging and he all but poo pooed that saying it was  almost yesterdays news. What they do now is called IMRT. Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy. He explained this as a beam of radiation that is extremely accurately aimed and modulated in both intensity and aim so that the cancer is targeted throughout.

Tomorrow I get the mask made and then I go through what they call a dry run. This is where I’m put on the machine and they simulate the therapy session. This lets me get acquainted with the procedures and the amount of time that it will take from the time you walk in till the time you walk out. If your as curious as I was just google making cancer mask. There are plenty of images to be found.

For a while I believe the worst is over. There have been a lot of bad days in the past month or so what with tonsillectomy, PEG tube, and having my teeth pulled. And after the talk with the Dr. today he reiterated the fact that unless you have absolutely perfect teeth and oral health, you would be much better served to have them out ( although I definitely DO NOT recommend having a VA dentist do it ). I’m told there may be more tough days ahead, but for now I feel that I’m out of the woods.

There are more appointments being booked by the day and I have to have someone or something else to keep up. I am blessed to have my wife Teresa who not only stands beside me, but pays attention to the words in the conversations that I don’t hear (although, in all fairness, I am the other half of the conversations she has with just about anyone else). She’s chauffeur, cook, laundress, and psychiatrist.  All that and she has to put up with my moods, my personal habits , of which after all of these years I’m sure there are more than a few. My new dietary demands, of which we seem to encounter something new almost every day. And these are just some of the things that I can count on her for every day. And ,and this is a HUGE AND, she always tries to smile.