It looks like my plan of action is to do chemotherapy on Mondays and radiation Monday through Friday. Since I’m not familiar with chemotherapy or radiation, I had to do a little research on Google to find out what it all means.
Chemoradiotherapy means having chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment together. Chemotherapy uses anti-cancer (cytotoxic) drugs to destroy cancer cells. The drugs circulate throughout the body in the bloodstream. Radiotherapy uses radiation, usually X-rays, to destroy cancer cells.
My Doctor, Dr. Arthur, said once I was done with my chemo and radiation treatments, she wanted me to do a year of immunotherapy. I’m not exactly sure what type of immunotherapy she’s prescribing, so I’ll have to find out on the 19th when I see her again.
I had a consultation on Monday (8-14-23) with a radiologist Doctor (Dr. Hershey) that said they would need to do a CT scan to determine the exact areas that needed to be treated with radiation. He sent us to Fayetteville that same afternoon.
When we got there, the lady explained there was nothing to worry about. She said they didn’t need to put the dye in my body and there were no shots to be had! Talk about making me feel better!
Originally, they told me it was going to be a minimum of two weeks before they would have the mold ready for radiation. I got a call on Wednesday (8-16) saying my first radiation appointment was going to be this coming Monday (8-21).
This is just one of the ways I have been watching God move in my life! Things have been moving at His pace and in His time frame!
As you can tell in the two pictures that I’ve included, I’m being prayed for by my nurse in blue and a spiritual counselor in white.
I don’t know if this is commonplace or not, but it feels to me as if God is moving in my life specifically! It feels as if God has placed these specific people in my life!
My girls have really been supportive too! They’re constantly asking Denise how I am, and just knowing that they’ve been praying for me helps more than they’ll know.
I can’t even begin to tell you how supportive my wife Denise has been!
Denise and I were having a conversation the other day where we were talking about the day I got the biopsy, and I made a comment that she quickly corrected me on. It was something in line with, “It was the day we went in the back for the Biopsy… Well, the day I went in the back for the biopsy.” She turns to me and says, “The day WE went in the back… We’re a team. We’re in this together!!!”
It’s actually not the first time she’s made a comment like that. I literally melt every time she does! Once I turned 50, I seemed to get a little more emotional about life in general, but especially towards my family!
She truly is the rock that I lean on.
I used to tell people I could only see one set of footprints in the sand. The truth is, there are still two sets of footprints. One belongs to God, the other belongs to my wife!
My Facebook family has really come through with some much needed prayer!
I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy road, but the love and support that I’ve received from family and friends has been overwhelming, to say the least!
My first chemo treatment went pretty well. Apparently, they put Benadryl and a steroid in the mix. The Benadryl definitely made me sleepy, but I tried to fight through it as much as I could since I hate sleeping in front of people.
Denise went down to the cafeteria and got us a hamburger and fries. We were both starving since we didn’t really eat much last night. It didn’t help that we stayed up a little later than we wanted knowing we had to get up early the next day.
Once we were done with the chemo, we checked in for the radiation treatment. It wasn’t supposed to start until 3:45 PM, but they told us we could always check in early and see if they had any cancellations. Luckily for us, they did!
Didn’t take very long. I think I was back there for roughly 30 minutes or so.
We went home and both of us took a well-deserved, very long nap!
My next radiation treatment is tomorrow (8-22) at 4:00 PM.
