Radiation Treatment Update

I have three days left for the radiation treatment. It has been a rough ride, but seems to be going well. I started having speech problems again, so my Radiation Oncologist put me back on steroids. He believes it is normal swelling due to the brain radiation I had in February. I really don't like steroids, but I am almost half way through the 4-week steroid period. They taper off each week, so each week should get easier.

The good news is that my hip and leg pain is gone. This means the radiation is working (and the steroids probably are helping too). So I stopped my pain medication last week. This has been a rough experience I wasn't expecting. I was on the Oxycodone around the clock for about 3 months, so my brain has some recalibrating to do.

I expect I will be feeling a lot better in a couple of weeks. Being a long term cancer patient has a lot of up and downs. I have tried to develop a resilient attitude--you will get knocked down and you just back up again. I've been through some very rough bouts and I bounce back each time.

The next PET scan will be in about 6 weeks. I am a bit concerned about the lesions in my lungs because the chemotherapy has been light this summer. I haven't had Avastin for a while, and I am off the Temodar while we are doing the radiation. So the cancer fighting drugs are just Xeloda and DCA. Hopefully with the new scan we will not find anything new.

I think the plan is to start on a new chemo regiment the week of August 9th. Thank you everyone for your continued encouragement and support.