Lunar New Year

I'd write more often if I had more to say but for now I feel like I am mostly biding my time. I'm on a mini radiation vacation, thanks to the Lunar New Year so this is the fourth day in a row I've not had to go to the hospital to get zapped. The timing is good - I'm a little less than half way though and my skin could probably use the break. I'm definitely getting a nice, lop-sided tan. I'm still feeling sick pretty much every day but other than that, radiation is uneventful.

I meet with my radio-oncologist once a week and she checks in on my skin and other side effects. When she asked how I was last Wednesday I ran through my complaints (more on that later) but ended by saying that so far, it was way better than chemo. Her response was "Yah, of course." Although I figured this would be the case, based on internet research, no one has come right out and said radiation will be easier. I guess because guarantees like that are hard to come by in medicine. Either way, her response made me glad. And hopeful that I can ride out the next month with relative ease.

The "more on that later" side effect is the only scary one I've had so far. While riding the bike last week I had very strange vision. It was like it was pulsing and with each pulse I could see all the veins in my eye. Weird, I know. I've had this happen once before, while I was sitting in the hallway waiting to defend my thesis. Since that time I could attribute it to stress I wasn't too worried. This time, I wasn't stressed but I was working out. I was worried that the chemo had done something to my heart. I mentioned it at the hospital and after some consultation my physician decided it probably wasn't anything to be too worried about. I guess at times I forget how much my body has gone through in the past six months. It's very unlikely heart damage and more likely just a combination of fatigue and stress and everything else.

So there you have it - all of the updates from the past week or so. As you can see, there is not too much happening in my neck of the woods and hopefully that is the way that it stays.