Halfway There!

Friday I finished up radiation session 14, which puts me both halfway through my radiation, and halfway through my entire treatment plan (since after radiation I’ll be repeating the same number and type of chemotherapy treatments I had before). I’m feeling good about being halfway through radiation and doing well so far. It’s a little discouraging to think about the rest of what’s behind the radiation, so I’m focusing on other things, like a trip back east in October on my break between radiation and resuming chemo, our Christmas plans to be in California with the family in late December, and all the other wonderful travel we’re thinking about next year.

I managed to get through last week with not much impact on my system. I had a couple of days where I took the over-the-counter Imodium after a touch of diarrhea, but in each case it resolved itself by the next day. I treated periodic episodes of gassiness with Gas-X (it works, by the way). Over the weekend, my system seemed a bit more queasy than it’s been, but I still managed to get in all my activities—rowing both Saturday and Sunday mornings, and joining our book group on Sunday evening. Plus a healthy round of yard work on Saturday. So far fatigue has not been an issue—just the somewhat unsettled bowels, and that’s still more a background than a foreground issue. I think the exercise both helps me both to focus on other things and to build reserve energy capacity for my body to deal with the impact of the radiation.

I rather expect the bowels to become more of an issue in the next couple weeks, so we’ll see how it goes. I have one of the radiation staff encouraging me to think that I might be one of the 10% of people who go through radiation without symptoms. However the same person has also encouraged me to be prepared for a sudden lurch of my system. The odds for escaping symptoms don’t seem that great to me, so I’m definitely coming down on the “be prepared” side. My hope is that the “down” time can be minimized, so I’m taking it one day at a time. At this point I am thankful for each day that I can get through without feeling miserable or being held back on what I’d like to do.