Treatment and Beyond

(Watching football with Hannah Mathilda)

So I finished radiation treatment a week and half ago.   Other than the inconvenience of going to the facility every weekday for four weeks – about a half-hour each time + twenty minutes travel, the impact of the treatment period was pretty tolerable.  I continued eating well and actually joined a gym to pump up my strength.  I enjoyed a second and very powerful healing ceremony offered by members of our synagogue.  I think it all helps, and I value greatly all the prayers, books, meals, and good wishes that friends offer on my behalf.

Toward the end of the treatment period, the cumulative effects of the radiation did start to take their toll in the form of a pointed kind of fatigue that would hit me in the afternoons.   So I took naps, and that really balanced it out.  Finally, over the last couple days, I am feeling my energy return.

And so, moving on . . . I have a check-up after Thanksgiving at which time we will schedule that follow-up PET/CT scan.   They don’t expect to see much change in my stomach yet.  The effects of the radiation won’t be fully apparent for six months.  However, it will be telling to see if the activity in my lower intestine reappears.  If nothing shows up there – as we all expect – then I’m mostly in the clear for the time being.  My radiologist suggested that, if the scan is negative now, when I do have the endoscopy at the six-month interval, I actually should have the double-balloon endoscopy procedure just to be sure about what initially showed up in the first scan.   Here is an interesting animation showing how this new technology operates (I only get a little cramped watching this): DBE Animation

We’ll be up the Bay Area over Thanksgiving, and I look forward to reconnecting in person with family and friends up there.  I’m keenly attuned to the theme of gratitude as we enter this holiday season.   I’ve received so much good energy, and I send along the bounty to all of you.