Mr. Sandman.....

Howdy folks,

Today ends week 3 of chemo-radiation.  In fact, following today's treatment, I'll be exactly halfway done, with 14 of them down.  YAY!  Try as I might to come up with a witty story to commemorate the occasion, all attempts at producing an amusing tale have failed me.  Nonetheless, I couldn't let the halfway point pass without some acknowledgement, so here goes:

For the most part, I'm still tolerating things alright, although I definitely began feeling the effects of the radiation late last week.  The doctors had warned me that as the cumulative effects built, I'd feel a lot like I had a sunburn on my esophagus.  I hope that none of you has ever been in a position to receive a sunburn on a mucus membrane, but I can tell you that it's a pretty apt description.  Eating is quite a bit harder now, so as I'd mentioned before, I'm keeping pretty much to the softer foods, although depending on time of day even scrambled eggs and cottage cheese can give me some issues.  Oddly, water is among the more difficult substances to consume these days -- almost as if someone has switched the household tap over to Gordon's vodka (nothin' but the very finest burn going down).  As you can imagine, this complicates life a bit, and leaves me eating a lot of ice chips, which, oddly, don't cause near as much trouble.  The doctor prescribed a transdermal pain patch -- which seems to be keeping things under control, but it does make me a little sluggish.  It's far better than the other meds I'd been taking, which controlled the pain by putting me straight to sleep.

Ironically, my biggest problem these days is lack of sleep.  I suspect due to the combination of medications, I've wound up in a state that can best be described as wired-tired.  I can usually get a couple of hours of sleep at night, and then I'm wide awake starting anywhere from 12-1am, onward.  As I keep saying -- this too shall pass.

The good news in all of this is that every bit of the above misery is related to side effects from the treatment.  All the information we have at this point suggests that the disease itself is still on the run, and we intend to keep it that way.  Even despite my difficulties in eating, my weekly bloodwork continues to be excellent -- the doctor said that in this situation, it's easy to get your nutrition and electrolyte values out of whack, and since mine are still looking good, he's very pleased.  Even though the next few weeks will continue to suck, at least it's for a good reason, which makes it much easier to tolerate.

Marcus continues to be a rockstar in all regards.  He's responsible for the bulk of my nutritional success.  I guarantee that if there is a way that I can be healed through food, he will see to it that it happens.  I highly recommend Dr. Hilliard's Spa and Resort if you are in need of a place to convalesce ;-}  The staff there even tolerate your cranky-drug-induced mood swings without so much as a harsh look.  He's amazing.

Best wishes to all of you -- and thanks again to everyone for keeping in touch!