Day 13

Noticeable Side-Effects: Physical Exhaustion, Mental Restlessness, Hair-Loss, Dry Scalp, Some Nausea*
* Dr. Lawrence gave me pills for nausea which help, but are not 100%
Meals: I've stopped keeping track. One, I've been too tired to update the blog everyday; and two, I'm not losing weight, so that means I'm eating enough.
Weight: 102.4 kg

Reflection on 2 weeks of Treatment:

On Day 4 (when I suddenly was no longer fit to blog daily), I felt so nauseated after treatment that I had to ask my wife to stop the car a half-dozen times on the way home. Those of you who know me best are familiar with my stomach of tanned leather (that usually takes on 2 gallons of coffee a day) can understand that it takes A LOT to make me sick... I see the doctors every Tuesday now, so I got pills on Day 6 and have not had to "pull-over" since!

Side-effects are finally starting to kick-in, so I'll go into a little detail here:

I got a "Radiation Therapy of the Brain" sheet when I first started treatment which is used to explain the procedure and possible side-effects. There are check boxes next to the various side-effects so I can be prepared for potential issues specific to my case.

The boxes checked are:
SHORT-TERM: Fatigue, Hair Loss (possibly permanent), Nausea and Vomiting, Skin Irritation.
As of today, I have a little of each.
LONG-TERM: Brain Damage, Reduced Intellectual Function, Second Malignancy
* I was told that odds of my having any long-term effects is about 0.5% in my case. Still, this is a pretty gnarly list! In case you haven't gathered, "second malignancy" means "another type of cancer caused by radiation." Dude!  Highly uncool...

As far as exhaustion goes, some days last week (Days 5 - 9) were so bad that I spent most of the afternoon laying in bed. When I wasn't doing as badly, I went to a local park to stare at the lake while "showing" the car I'm trying to sell. This week is much better; I was even able to drive myself to treatment on Days 11 and 12! (I probably could have done it today too, but I like spending the time with my wife and its less worrisome.)

The hair loss doesn't bother me one bit. It will probably be temporary; and if it's not, it's not! I haven't worn more than ¼" of hair since my original surgery, and I don't feel the need to in the future.  I'll post a few photos when I can get someone to take them...

Feeling better so, what to do?

Before treatment began, I wrote a small list of projects I would like to do to keep my brain active and to avoid cabin fever. Until this week, I wasn't up to doing much of anything, but now I'm starting to get to the list.

First item is making a pair of waraji. Waraji are traditional Japanese shoes made from woven rice straw. Rice straw not being readily available (not to mention itchy and uncomfortable), I am using #530 jute. Below is a picture of "proper" waraji, and a shot of my homemade waraji loom:

I usually start several projects at the same time in case I get bored with one or two. This time being no exception, I'm also making a wristwatch, computer mouse, custom-fitting safety goggles, and Harry Potter style wands for my kids.  Here's some wands I did in the past:

The way I make them results in very durable toys and all of these have been thrown around more times than I can count (my youngest can say "Expelliarmus" a lot faster than I can say "Stupify"!).  If anyone is interested, please comment and I will post a tutorial for making these wands (and/or any of the other weird projects I will be posting in the future).

That's enough for now, I suppose. I have so many thoughts and complaints I would like to lodge, but this post is long enough as it is.

Feeling pretty decent and looking forward to two days without treatment,
The Chungerpung