Damn, how many TV/movie references did I use in this?... I need to put down the remote.

I want to give an informational update as to where I'm at with treatment, well, as informative as it can be, coming trough me, from the doctor's, who, when they explain it to me, only about 25% (that's probably being generous) registers as anything more than, " Wahwah...radiation...Wah Wahwah Wah...chemotherapy...Wah...scan...Wahwah Wah Wahwahwah...spinal tap." What the what?

So yesterday I finished a 3 week course of radiation to my WHOLE brain. Radiation continues to work after you've finished treatment, so at this point, nothing is gone, but hopefully shrunk, and continuing to shrink. (The little bit of hope that I spoke of in a previous blog about the bumps on my head shrinking was dashed by the doctors yesterday when they told me "Yeah, that doesn't really mean anything." But I think sensing my letdown added "But it can't be bad, right?" Uh? You're asking me? Don't ask that of me, you won't like my answer).

Radiation in addition to killing cancerous cells, also kills healthy cells. The healthy cells will regenerate, but like with any healing process, it takes time. As of right this moment my vision has not improved, BUT it hasn't gotten worse (very good thing). So we wait 6 weeks for the full effect, then take pictures of my brain, but over the course of the next 6 weeks, the only real thing I have to go off of is if my vision starts to get better.

In my first visit with the Radiation Oncologists, they told me my plan, as well as, some other possible plans for the future depending upon the results of this first plan. As far as radiation goes, they mentioned the possibility of gamma knife radiation, where they target a specific tumor. A treatment used more commonly on people that have one brain tumor, not like me and my baker's dozen, where they just radiate the whole damn head. But it is one tumor in particular, right on my brain stem, that is causing my brain and my eyes to have, "...a failure to communicate."

In the meantime, I will be going back onto some form of chemotherapy, which has yet to be nailed down, due to some tests needed first, which leads me to the spinal tap. Monday I will have that procedure, don't know when I'll get the results, but what they are looking for is cancer cells having a pool party in my spinal fluid. If they are, then we're gonna dump a shark in their pool, no fuck that, we're gonna dump a metric shit ton (actual unit of measure) of piranhas in there! Way feistier. Now the way they administer chemotherapy to the brain and spinal cord is through a "port" placed in the head. I already have a port in my chest for my regular chemo, so the port in the head doesn't really freak me out, but it is a surgical procedure, and even after all I've had, I haven't grown to like them. And if they're not there? Well, they may just do it anyway for good measure.

I have to take a mandatory couple of weeks break between radiation and chemo, which will probably not be too much of a break, since there are tests to taken, results to be discussed, plans to be hatched, but it shouldn't mean being down at the hospital everyday. And to that I say, thank you Jesus! Time for a little trip!
So next on the line up is Spinal Tap, let's turn this shit up to eleven, and ROCK ON!