Weird Day: Sunday, November 22, 2009
It’s Sunday, and it’s an odd day compared to the average here in Boston. I’m never here on Sundays, but this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday, my schedule has been changed and I had to return on Sunday for a treatment. What’s weird is, that I expected the campus to be busy and maybe even more busy then regular days … but that wasn’t the case.
Everything I accustomed to was closed. Even the valet parking, the coffee and food commissary, as a matter of fact, the entire Yawkey building was basically closed down. I actually searched out a policeman and asked if I could park in the lot and get through the building. Even the rotating doors were locked! He took me through.
The main hospital across the way looked open … but most of the outer buildings all looked closed down. I personally thought Sunday would be a busy day for visitors and things like that … but I guess not … how odd.
I did manage to get into the Proton Center and get a treatment which now leaves only another ten to go.
I also met with Doc today and he explained that the next step was to really hammer the tumor for the last ten sessions … I mean really hammer it. This means increased dosage with Each treatment and probably a little more sleepiness and nausea then I’ve been experiencing with Proton … but you know, that’s a small price to pay.
Working accurately around the nerve bundles has always been an issue, but it’s starting to have an effect on my walking any distance. I can feel the muscle and nerves in my legs painfully complaining each time I get treated. It’s necessary to hit the actual nerves in order to totally destroy the tumor. They’re entangled in a way that you can not attack one without attacking the other. This is the reason why the conventional surgery was so invasive and guaranteed to do permanent damage. Their plan was to simple cut out all the nerves and muscles along with the tumor.
The theory behind proton treatment is that the normal nerve and muscle cells will recover from the proton beam (hopefully in time), but the cancerous tumor cells won’t. Of course, it’ll take months if not years to determine if that actually happened. We just have to wait and see how things pan out.
Other then the pain, in the back of my right leg, I feel pretty good. There is still a constant tiredness and I expect that to increase a bit over the last ten treatments … but then I’m free for awhile.
One of the next things I have to deal with is finding a doctor in Vermont that is able to watch this cancer, read the scans and tests, and make suggestions on and if I need to return. Some of this Doc has said he’ll do … but we’d both like to find a place closer to home that can at least watch on a six month basis as things progress.
Well, I hope you hurt bad in the next couple of weeks. Home stretch of attacking the tumor. Blast away, Doc. Get viscious, Sid. Time for some S & M. The pain is purposeful and positive. Do some real damage so that the body will mount a massive, curative, rebuilding.
I was surprised to learn that weightlifters actually do not build muscle while lifting, they ~destroy~ muscle while lifting, in order that the body will rebuild muscle after the workout, and that rebuilding results in muscle even larger than before the workout.
Pain? You bet! Grit and grind your teeth and bear it, and grin.
Definitely persuade people at Dartmouth Hitchcock to monitor your progress. Most likely you should contact radiologists (doctors who are even higher paid than surgeons, by the way) there, i.e., the radiology department. It is unusual for Dartmouth Hitchcock not to have the latest equipment, so one would think that they would be extremely interested in proton therapy and its aftermath, especially since proton therapy, itself, is a radiation. Someday Dartmouth Hitchcock will be getting a proton power center for northern New England.