May 20, 2010 – Radiation 27 [8 to go] – Thursday

This will be another short posting.  Was knocked out even more this morning than yesterday.  Could barely feed myself one can.  Taking a shower was against the currant.  The cause is likely the combination of the upgraded pain patch and the new anti-fungal meds as we ramp up for the final EIGHT radiation treatments. 

I’m finally reaching a reasonable level of coherency.  Hope that by tomorrow morning enough of the chemicals will have washed themselves out of my system (or at least stopped fighting one another) that I can do my 12 minute swallow exercises in under a half hour!  Then again, 45 minutes is better than falling asleep 3 minutes into the routine.  Again!  (As was the case today.)

I actually feel better knowing that this is not all fatigue but rather a mix of meds with some fatigue tossed in.  It’s great to see the countdown at eight and to feel as well as I do (discounting the med waves.)  I’m not going line dancing but I’m not miserable.  I’m real grateful.

Speaking of which, today’s music was from The Grateful Dead’s Road Trips Vol. 3 No. 2 – Municipal Auditorium, Austin TX, 11/15/1971: “Beat It On Down The Line” and “Dark Star>El Paso>Dark Star”.

Yesterday’ music was from iF’s iF 2, tracks played were “Your City Is Falling”, “Sunday Sad”, and “I Couldn’t Write And Tell You”.

I won’t be answering emails until sometime this weekend and then slowly and succinctly.   Libby - thanks for the beautiful watercolor card (by your hand).  Ann's gonna frame it!

Thanks everyone for your support and comfort.  Having you with me on this ride makes this journey seem so much shorter than I ever thought it could be.  Onward!

Love…

Richard