Yesterday we celebrated! Radiation was FINISHED!! That was a whole lot easier on Brenda than the first time she had radiation in Houston! This time the treatments only lasted 5 days, 25 minutes each time, the head mask wasn't as uncomfortable, and the side effects...so far...haven't been bad. She's just a little more tired than usual. The doctor said that the effects of the "Cyber Knife" are more gradual and would keep occurring over the next few weeks. Lets kill the beast!
We have an appointment to learn about Phase 2...chemo...next Tuesday. They called this morning to confirm all that. They are also doing genetic sequencing and those test results are not back yet. I just can't tell you how thankful we are for good doctors and the ability to treat this God awful disease.
So I have to tell you about this strange thing that happened yesterday. After radiation, we went to the grocery store to get things for dinner and Brenda was at the meat counter talking to the guy about Albertson's sea food. They got to talking about her cancer and the guy chimes in that the area is small...about the size of a pea and after about 3 to 6 rounds of chemo all will be OK. What the heck! She didn't mention anything to him about the size...just the location. He said that he was very intuitive about those types of things. So I guess if you want a health check...just go see the guy with long hair at the meat counter at Albertson's at Power and McDowell! He didn't mention anything about any health problems with me so I think I'm good to go! You know...as I always say...God gives you gifts in strange packages.
And yes, we did celebrate last night with a wonderful lobster tail dinner. Then we watched the Patriot/Raven football game and thanked God for giving us another day together.
Hi Everyone...although it's past...Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Hope you had a wonderfully delicious day with friends and/or family. Brenda and Becky cooked a marvelous turkey dinner while I went out to get Mom for a nice day away from the routine of her assisted living facility. Ryder (Becky's son) was here from Dallas and Toni joined us after I bullied her into making her mother's famous cream cheese-jello recipe! YUMMY! Now I'm sure everyone is trying to get ready for Christmas. Time is sure flying by.
The Friday after Thanksgiving, Brenda and I (of course along with the dogs) went back up to Pinetop to winterize the lodge. It was so peaceful up there and a great way to relax a little after the big turkey dinner day. We had the pellet stove going in the morning and at night. It was so cozy. The days were cold and getting colder and a winter storm was on the way. Sure wish we could have stayed to watch it snow, but we had to leave Sunday as we needed to get home for appointments on Monday. We actually hit the storm in Heber and experienced a near white out by Forest Lakes. Sure glad we didn't leave any later. Brenda got her garden all ready for winter and I got all our outdoor furniture in the garage along with our side by side vehicle and the trailer. The garage was full just waiting for spring to arrive!
The Mesa house is 99.5% done from the remodel and we have cleaned it a couple times. Construction dust hides EVERYWHERE, but the house looks beautiful and we're so glad it's done. The next phase will be to remodel the master bathroom.
Vicky...our dear, dear friend from Pittsburgh flew in on Saturday for her annual winter break from the hassles of being a doctor. There have been the usual shopping trips, the visit to a Phoenix brew pub, and a big steak dinner with the gang last night that had us laughing our fool heads off. That is such great medicine! Now Vic and Brenda are planning the yearly international meal. The region this year is Slovak and they'll put the spread on Friday night. It should be another yummy experience with the gang.
So we thought that Brenda's radiation would start yesterday but they moved it back a day. It's a complicated process to set up how to attack this damn thing with the Cyber Knife. We had to be at Barrows this morning at 8:00 only to find out that the doctor forgot to tell his staff that Brenda would be in earlier. Fortunately they warmed up the Cyber Knife and all proceeded with only about a 40 minute delay. Vic and I got a tour of the procedure. It's really an amazing process...now let's just pray that it vaporizes this nasty thing.
She has 4 more treatments...one each day. Each lasts about 25 minutes and that's all the radiation for now...more might come later however. Next week we see the oncologist so we'll see what else is in store for our trooper. She is one tough cookie! Thank the Lord!
Here's a pic of the Thanksgiving group and of Vic and Brenda at the pub (Helio Basin Brewing Company)...the craft beer was delicious and the food yummy. It's always fun to look at pictures.
