*CancerHelpForRick

1/92025 UPDATE!     RADIATION TREATMENTS COMPLETED ON NEW YEAR's EVE DAY!!   Follow up with Dana-Farber doctors this week!!

Back home.....and back to the reality of life's ongoing challenges!     The FINAL treatment session was marked by a bubble machine sending tiny bubbles everywhere and the sound system blasting Kool and the Gang's "CELEBRATION"  (https://youtu.be/3GwjfUFyY6M)   I was suitable impressed with the team's effort to mark this important occasion!

Follow-up this week.   All is well!  Still Suffering side effects of the treatments, but they will clear over time.   Totally weakened by the exposures,  can barely find the energy to get to the kitchen for coffee,  let alone unpack from the 7 weeks away, but I do have a sense that other debilitating side effects are improving.  On the positive side,   I lost 25 lbs and they didn't have to place a feeding tube!

Won't have a clue at effectiveness of the treatment until I go back in April and they can do "scans" without tissue inflammation.

Thanks again to all who have helped and provided both spiritual and real support during this period!   

WOW!   WEEK 7 UPDATE!

It's been such a long haul and included the bulk of the calendar's important  family holidays, starting with my 1st treatment on Veteran's Day......then rolling into Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas and ending on New Years!     I hope those 33 daily radiation exposures have been effective because they have exacted a heavy price on my body and psyche !

The treatment itself is "no sweat"   I've suffered more while dressed in yellow "ant-C's"and full face respirator , sitting in the S5W Reactor Compartment of the USS GCM, babysitting a liquid nitrogen "freeze seal" for hour after hour to provide that mandatory 2-valve protection on the reactor's main coolant system!

The side effects are "significant", starting with sore and swollen throat (pain aside...cant swallow effectively  choking on pills, food, etc.)   "Dry mouth" sounds like no big deal,  but in reality has caused me to enter the realm of "no sleep" for the past 2 - 3 weeks.  The saliva and mucus membranes don't work well and I wake up every few minutes choking and sure I'll never see daylight again.  As much as I try, there's no way to clear the thick phlegm that threatens to squeeze the life out of you!!!

My radiation tech team thought I looked to be in distress last Monday and they put me on an ambulance and sent me to Brigham & Women's Emergency Room, where they ran every test known to man, pronounced me good to go for another day, and sent me back to the hotel at 1130 PM

Every good thing must come to an end!   With that said, only 1 more day remaining!  Praise the lord!   I just hope the side effects clear up a timely manner.!!!

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT, AS WELL AS THE WELL WISHES!  Both mean a lot!     Time to party!!!

UPDATE #4 – WEDNESDAY 12/18

Wow!  Only nine (9) more sessions remaining of the scheduled thirty-three (33) daily radiation treatment sessions. Never thought I’d last that long!  Unbelievably,  Christmas is only a week from today!    Then a few more sessions between the holidays, culminating in my completion and release on New Year’s Eve!!  Not sure if I will even recognize New Salem again.

Since the area being “treated” is my left neck / thyroid area,  the side effects include severe sore throat and dryness of mouth, making it very difficult (“painful”) to swallow and eat! (and can’t speak at more than a whisper)  . Sleeping is also at issue!  Can’t seem to sleep more than an hour or so at a time without waking in a fit of coughing and choking with the feeling of someone’s hands around my neck!  

We made the decision at the “git-go” that we could not try to make the 4 hour daily round trip required and we would stay locally in Boston.   Wise choice!!  I barely have enough energy to catch the shuttle and get to my daily treatments at Dana-Farber, a mile and a half down the road -  as it is!   

Again, thank you all for your support through this ordeal,  and have a great Christmas and a very happy New Year!! 

Am now completing Week #4 of 7 of my daily radiation treatments, and yesterday marked the "Half-Way" point !!! (with fewer sessions remaining that I've already completed )

So far have managed OK.   Very sore throat, difficulty swallowing, extremely tired, very "hoarse" and no appetite coupled with superficial radiation skin burns of the neck!  Could be worse!     

No Christmas this year I guess.   I have daily treatments at Dana-Farber in Boston until New Year's Eve (excepting only Christmas Day, the 25th).   Will have to enjoy the gas fireplace and blue tinsel tree in the lobby at the hotel where we are staying

Thank you all for your support and Happy Holiday's to all!