Monday November 16, 2009

I have heard from many of you over the weekend and this morning about the blog, thanks to everyone out there for their outpouring of love and caring. I appreciate your support.

Well the week started off on the wrong foot, but it turned out OK for Stacey and me. The computers that run the radiation machines were down when we got to Stanford this morning and so we had an extra 2 1/2 hour wait to get treatment. I used that time to go get my blood work done for Chemo tomorrow, rather than have to get it done after radiation tomorrow, using the time wisely :). They test your blood every week before treatment to check on the white blood cell count and to make sure no other measurements are out of whack. Stacey and I also used the time to go get our chair massages while listening to some soothing guitar music from a volunteer, both benefits that are part of the offering at Stanford for patients and caregivers. I was laughing with my brother in law, Tom, yesterday about it being a great resort, with all the amenities, just have to put up with a lot of sick people around you all the time.

It seems Monday is going to be one of the good days as I go through treatment. The chemical is pretty much out of my system (or at least not causing the constant nausea I had last week) and having the weekend off from radiation allows the neck to recover from the potential burning that may occur. My weight is holding (actually gained a pound over the weekend), no mouth sores yet and my skin, while a little tender to the touch, has not really shown any burns yet. My energy level seems ok after having the weekend off, but the real test comes tomorrow with the second chemo session.

Stacey and I went to see BB King perform last night with some of our friends, Bob and Lin, and had a blast, we were in the seventh row and could see his smiles and the twinkle in his eyes. To see someone who is 84 still rip into his guitar as strongly as he does is a truly motivating event. You can't be down while listening to BB sing the blues. The opening act was Willie Nelson's son, Lukas. Now that kid can play a guitar! Sadly, his voice is the same as his father's, :)

Thanks again for all the support and look for an update tomorrow.