Week 2

Well, this week felt quite a bit like last week, with a little more intensity. I was able to head into work Monday and Tuesday, feeling relatively energetic. Wednesday was another day of napping. I'm definitely feeling the increase in fatigue, but it still hasn't completely shut me down.

On Tuesday I met with one of the radiation physicists. That was possibly the coolest part of this entire treatment so far (shocking, I know!) He described how there are specialists in image processing who work on aligning the various CAT scans, MRIs, and x-rays with each other so that the doctor can determine what volume within my skull they'd like to irradiate. Once that volume is determined, another set of physicists work on figuring out how to set apertures and angles of the incoming beams to accurately fill that volume with a high intensity, while limiting exposure to the rest of the brain. Over the past 15 years or so, the technology has improved immensely, and likely will continue in the next 15 years. If anyone is curious about more details, let me know. It's a pretty impressive process!

Wednesday I had an appointment with my radiation oncologist, and I left feeling fairly optimistic. While I'm definitely being slowed by this treatment, she was surprised by some of the things I'm still managing to hang onto. While I know that could change, the longer I can keep my life moving along, the better it will be!

Once again, I want to thank everyone who's helped me out in tons of different ways. Today, for example, Chana's mom brought her by to visit, and that picked me up for sure. And then a great ulti friend brought some pasta by for dinner. So thanks to everyone again!