I can see the light..

Yup, I can see the light now! It's almost over and it seems I won this round. Had my last visit to the blood lab, the last doctors' appointment for a long time and there's only three treatments left! Not much news from the doc really, they won't declare me 100% healthy for another 5 years or so (if ever?), but the treatments are officially over Monday 19/11 and then there will be nothing hospital-related for about 3 months. The effect of the radiation will go on for a few weeks after the final blast. The risk of getting lymphoma-reloaded is there, but it's not that big. If I do get sick again, at least they will know it at an early stage since I'm going to have regular check-ups for at least those 5 years. The risk of renewal is at it's highest within 2 years from when the treatments end, so every pit-stop will be a nail-biter for that period of time.

The soarness in the throat is slightly better too, either I'm getting used to the pain or maybe the body learned how to handle the radiation and produce sufficient mucus (gotta love that word) anyway? I hope my throat goes back to normal soon.. Also I had quite the sendoff from the blood lab yesterday (13/11). It was the worst amateur EVER!! And yes, it was a man. He kept tapping my veins for a long time, switched arms, taptaptap, went back to the left arm, taptaptap.. Then he made a leap of faith and stuck the needle in.. Nothing! Kept digging.. Nothing! Took it out, stuck it back in.. Nothing! GOD DAMN DUDE!! How hard can it be?? At this point I started to feel a bit queezy but at the same time he gave up decided to draw blood from my hand. Haha! My HAND!! Jeez what an amateur.. Well he got the job done. I don't like the blood lab anymore. Not that it has ever been a contending favourite in life. Today I made my last visit to the lab, fortunately only for a routine EKG. As I might've mentioned earlier, the radiation area is also covering my heart and lungs so they need to follow up on that too, so I don't get any immediate complications. But now it's safe to say: no more lab for months! =)

Radio Ga-Ga

TGIF!! It's funny how fridays have a meaning again, no radiation for two days! Three weeks down and one to go. This is starting to feel like going to work every day and that's a feeling I really don't miss right now. Even though being strapped down from my face for few minutes each day isn't that bad.. Only thing that sucks is the optimistic time-planning in the radiation deptartment. I've been to 15 treatments so far and I'm quite sure a maximum of 3-5 of those have been exactly at the given time. Either they're running late for some reason, sometimes early and a few times the place has been crowded because one of the radiation machines is broken. At one point this week two of them were out of service. With 5 radiation rooms and patients dropping in every 10min that can screw up a daily schedule quite badly! Also I've managed to get in a few minutes late (max 3min) a few times which means they pick the next one before me and I get to wait 10min. This also happens if you arrive at the exact minute you're supposed to get called in. Old people usually arrive like 30min in advance so I've lost my turn at least 3-4 times so far. At least I get to feel young in the waiting area, I think I've seen one person that can be categorized as the same generation as I am. Cancer isn't that popular among people in their 30's, weird huh?

Anyway, only side-effect I've felt is a soar throat. Both tubes! The trachea is in a constant state of feels-like-I'm-getting-a-flu and the esophagus is just short on lubricant. It hurts like hell when I swallow dry, hot, cold, coarse or acidic foods or drinks. It started some time last week and has been getting worse every day. So it's making eating and drinking somewhat restricted, maybe I can lose weight now? ;) (I wish!) Now that I think about it my skin has also been slightly reddish after the treatments but not anything like a sunburn.. yet! So not much left now. Every day I get in, wait for a few minutes to half an hour, get called in, take my shoes and shirt off, jump up on the motorized bed, get strapped down and get scanned and radiated. Takes about 5-10min once I'm in there! They also have to align me perfectly with my four tattoos and this takes some effort from the poor nurses who have to pull me back and forth on the bed. It helps a little bit that they have a sheet on a somewhat slippery surface, but still, I'm no lightweight. To make it easier for them I've quite well mastered the position I'm supposed to be in, Tuesday and Wednesday they didn't even have to touch me! I just found the exact position myself. They found it rather impressive. We're talking less than millimeter range here! But yeah, 6 treatments left and I'm a free man!

Here's a picture and a video of how the machine works: