Back To Vermont: Thursday, December 03, 2009
Birthday wishes continue to come in … and I continue to thank everyone for them. What a wonderful feeling 
Also, several folks have found oncologists in my area … which is amazing because i did some searching before posting that and couldn’t find one. I thank all you that sent suggestions and will start investigating this coming weekend. My friend Rose from Sweden even found one! Now thats amazing
I’m trying out some hats for cancer patients that Sher ordered for me online. They are hand-made by a cancer patient in all kinds of styles and colours. I have tried three of them, and all of them are very comfortable. Now I don’t think, I’m quite using them for the intended purpose which is to cover your hair during chemotherapy … however, I do use them to keep my head warm while sleeping.
Since this cancerous adventure began, my head has been cold at night and these hats are definitely doing their job. They’re inexpensive, comfy, and if you’re in need of such, it’s certainly worth it. She fast, dependable and down right honest. Here’s a link to her web site: http://www.cjhats.com/
Topic Change:
Yesterday they told me not to get the area where I’m being treated with protons wet! Like in the shower or bath. Yikes, wish I would’ve known that four five weeks ago. For some reason water seems to aggravate it. Of course it’s almost impossible to avoid all contact with water … but I’ll give it a try. I also have to assume that it would require full healing before getting my tattoo placed there, of course … only common sense.
Topic Change:
I was supposed to eat at an Ethiopian Restaurant this eve but … I couldn’t find a place to park my car! … within a block or two. Unfortunately, I had to leave … but will try again next week.
Topic Change:
I met with Doc today and he seemed excited about how things were going. His plan for the future has been simplified and is now to finish treatments this coming week and then schedule the tests and scans for a return trip in about six weeks. That’s it … that simply.
He did express some concern over the skin on which the protons have been passing through. Unfortunately, this does cause damage to the skin and is going to get worse before it gets better. The thin layer skin that covers my spine is pretty much toasted and he said he expects it to breakdown within a week or so. In other words, it just can’t take any more treatment. This is what I’ve been trying to photograph.
They gave me some special bandages and suave to apply when it starts to blister, don’t rub it, don’t scrub it … simply let it breakdown and heal it self. Keep it clean by covering it. Should take about a week to ten days. Also suggested if it gets worse then he expects to email him some pictures and he’ll make suggestions via email or telephone.
All and all, this is generally good news, if that’s all the damage I walk away with, and we’ve really put this tumor on hold … then I claim success.
Today’s treatment was a little funky though. For the first time this week, they brought into the treatment room on time. I, and they, assumed the proton maker was working just fine. They set me on the board as usual and spent the typical fifteen minutes lining my body up. They ran the scanning process first as always, this gives the computers a comparison to go by. If something isn’t correct, or I’m not lined up properly, the proton machine won’t run … this way there can be no major misses or mistakes.
After the scan, they pulled me back and put in the acrylic resistors and brass barrel heads and sent me forward for the firing of the protons … except nothing happened. It appeared that the pc that runs the software that controls all this got hung up. So they told me to sit tight for a minute and then rebooted it, and tried again … nothing.
Then the technician came over and said, another computer crashed and that I should get dressed and go wait in one of the nurses rooms while they attempt to fix it. No problem, I got up and left the room, but as I passed the corner I saw Ethan C. come running down the hall towards the proton room. If you remember, Ethan is the dude that gave one of the seminars on Proton Therapy I attended (I have one of his seminars on the audio page). As he approached I jokingly, (and with a smile) said “Hey man, what the hell kind of software are you writing that crashes in the middle of a treatment”.
He looked at me stunned at first, and then realized I was smiling and smiled back and said “come on, follow me”. We walked back into the treatment room and by this time the entire network had crashed or locked up. It’s a network that only runs the proton machines … but there’s sixteen computers networked together and they have to be rebooted in proper sequence in order to for everything to work properly. So after some fast, orderly rebooting and bingo! … things were back online and ready to go.
I got my treatment ten minutes later and I was on my way!
So, with all that excitement, I decided again, that I’d wait for the weekend to ask Sher to take the photos so that we (yes, me too) can see what proton does to skin after many high powered treatments.
Tomorrow I’m on my way back to Vermont, hopefully things will run smoothly and I’ll be able to leave town around noon time!
Hey … only one more week to go!
