The Second Week

I've completed the Second Week now, and still feel very much like myself. The first couple of days, I was a little fatigued with having to get up so early to drive to the Kaiser Cancer Center at Oyster Point for my early morning appointment and, at the same time I was cutting off the caffeine, I go right on to work from the treatment but have a little down time to eat, rest, and prepare for the work day. At the end of my treatment today (Friday, 3/5), they told me to rest well this weekend – side effects usually start now, mainly fatigue, and, for me, possible trouble swallowing and eating. We'll see...

The Kaiser Oyster Point Cancer Treatment Facility is extraordinary. Every person working there is welcoming, friendly, helpful, supportive – doctors, nurses, techs, dieticians, receptionists, admins, - it makes for a truly healing environment. The process is superbly efficient and well-organized as well as flexible – if one arrives early, or late, they are easily accommodated. Since we are all assigned regular times for treatment, we have our own little radiate-mate groups, and follow one another's progress. My good friend Helen took me the other day, and everyone went out of their way to welcome her. The techs offered a tour of the radiation room and equipment, and she went in to see the doc with me (Wednesday is “Doctor's Day”, when everybody touches base with their doctor.) It's possible that I may welcome some help getting there if these promised side effects manifest, so others of you may have the opportunity to see it for yourselves.

I'll “graduate” the first or second week in April. Then comes the waiting – two or three months later, I'll have the tests to determine the state of the tumors. Maybe they will be shrinking, or at least contained. I'm working on getting rid of them – many sources recommend visualizing some sort of violent action against the bad guys (cancer cells). Being an advocate of non-violence, this wasn't working for me, but I did discover that imagining Tinkerbell (“Believe, just believe!), sleeping inside me and waking up as the rays start to penetrate, using her wand to hasten the death of dying cells (putting them out of their misery), and then sweeping up the dead cells and throwing them into the waste stream – that works for me.