Radiation whammies putting hurt on hammies but cancer treatments moving nicely outside of that

 

Is it normal to want to chew your own hamstrings off after radiation sessions to blast away a tumour on your L-1 vertebrae? Asking for a friend, mind you.

I kid. Largely. We're four sessions into our set of 10 designed do away with the cancer that's taken refuge in my back. The first three days featured about a two-hour stretch afterwards where it did feel like hamstrings were seizing up. I took some Advil before today's treatment and we're doing better with that.

I decline comment on the number of Advil I took. Yes, even to you mother. 

I spoke with a radiation techie who felt that the pain was tied to swelling in my lower back from the radiation. He said to monitor it, and report it of course if it began to get worse. It seem to set off any major alarm bells for him. 

Other than that, we're muddling along nicely. Sessions take about eight minutes from start to finish. It's about the same as when we had by the end of our 20-session turn for the original tumour in the T-2 in  2010.

The top photo is the current master blaster. The second photo is the version that dealt with the tumour 13 years ago. 

You get a on table and this new machine circles around you. Does the full lap.  I'm not sure if it takes a break on my lap for lunch. Stop that. That's mean.

The first machine brought you up on a table and just blasted away from one position, if I remember correctly.

I worked the first three days of this little episode but my plan is to take a few days off and rest up.We'll see what happens next. The newspaper has been understanding, as always. 

I felt well enough today to have lunch with Vancouver Canucks ratio play-by-play broadcaster Brendan Batchelor. (This shameless name drop brought to you by me being friends with Bif Naked.)

We get the weekend off from treatment and Monday, too, since B.C. Cancer counts that as its holiday for staff. I see a radiologist next week as well as getting blasted, so we'll have some more info then.

We do have a PET scan booked for January already. The hope has been that the 10-radiation sessions will be done with this bout with cancer. It took us six months in hospital and eight operations to get through Round 1 in 2010-11, and a stem cell transplant to get through Round 2 in 2017, so two-plus weeks seems mighty simple, if that's what it winds up being.

I'll check in again here next week.

Phasers get set on Friday and then we start Crushing sometime after that

I promised renowned Canadian recording artist and my close personal friend Bif Naked that I was going to cut back on my shameless name dropping in Crush The Tumour With Humour this time around. 

Really. Promised. I'm working on it.

Anyways, I had to call Don Taylor -- he of Sports Page fame and the much ballyhooed Donnie and Dhali show weekdays on CHEK 6 -- about something work related. He didn't pick up and I had to leave a message. And -- Don being Don -- he called back promptly.

Ewen: Hello. Thanks for tracking me down. How are you?

Taylor: I'm great Steve. And you?

Ewen: I'm great, too.

Taylor: I read your blog. You want to try that answer again? 

Yes, the cancer is back, which is why CTTWH has come out of the bullpen and gotten                                                                                                . Third time for both.

After going through eight surgeries, six months in hospital and learning to walk again the first time and a stem cell transplant the second time things sound much simpler for this episode. The tumour is in the L-1 vertebrae, We met with the radiologist on Monday and she believes that 10 sessions split over 10 straight week days should do away with culprit.

I have a scan Friday at B.C. Cancer where they'll aim the phasers and set everything up and then it'll be another few days while the scheduling department gets me on their list before they start blasting away.

The radiation caused problems back in Round 1, because it took out the T-2 vertebrae as well as the tumour and led to a full back collapse. The explanation this time around is that there's much more of the L-1 intact because they've caught things so early.

I'm going to see what Bif Naked thinks.

Stay tuned.

We're back Crushing for a third time, thanks to another tumour in my back

I was certain we'd come back waxing away on this blog one day. I was hoping that it wouldn't be this damn soon.

I have cancer. Again. We're Crushing The Tumour With Humour (CTTWH) for a third time, following previous Crushings in 2010 and 2017. Carol-Ann and I got word that my blood work was off over the summer. I had a Petscan on Sept. 28, and confirmation came from our hematologist Dr. Kerry Savage last Monday about a tumour on my L-1 vertebrate.

There's a radiation consult on Monday and we've been told to expect multiple zapping sessions designed to blast the thing to smithereens. 

I'm in no pain. I was in unfathomable, indescribable pain the first two times. Prognosis seems good here. Dr. Savage says that there's been tremendous strides made in chemotherapy in my type of cancer -- I don't display in a typical fashion, so right now I believe I'm being classified as a third occurrence of a Solitary Plasmacytoma although there were times that the smart people we leaning toward tagging all this as a Multiple Myeloma -- but the thought is that the radiation will work, give me a few clean years and we can use the chemo somewhere down the line.

I had radiation in 2010. It blasted out the tumour that had infiltrated my T-2. It also demolished what was left of my T-2 and caused my back to collapse, leading to a bunch of surgeries and hospital.

Yeah, that's crossed my mind here. We'll try to get more answers Monday.

The second tumour was in the left leg, just above my knee. It led to a stem cell transplant in July 2017. 

For now. I'll just roam around our house, belting out lines from The Firm's 1985 hit Radioactive. 

Got to concentrate
Don't be distractive
Turn me on tonight

DA DA DA DA DA

'Cause I'm radioactive
Radioactive

Radioactive

Radioactive

I know. I know. People of a certain vintage will suggest I should go with Imagine Dragon's 2012 Radioactive, but have you seen the video? A bunch of puppets, Lou Diamond Phillips and Alexandra Daddario from The Rock's Baywatch movie? No thanks. That's too much.