Seriously, my apologies for submitting this entry so late. I know some of you do check my blog on daily basis and throw a temper tantrum when nothing has been updated yet. I apologize in advance for your damaged china dishes, the holes in the wall, your shattered '47 in HDTV, and so on. I hope this entry will be enough to appease your frustration of waiting countless hours on me.
First of all, happy new year to all of you! My holidays were downright crazy, and just the way I like it. :) got plenty of guests visiting me in the month of December, mostly because a lot of my friends were either back home for holidays or just merely passing through bay area during their long winter break. For Christmas, we went to Washington to be with my relatives on my mom’s side. Right after xmas, went to Canada for galore of cold Canadian brewskis, to rideee hard at Whistler, to sample their delicacy (poutine), and most importantly, to be with my good friends for New Year Eve. Am not going to elaborate anymore on this, but simply enough, it was absolutely great way to start my year of 2011!
I got back from Canada a week ago, but fell into hibernation until couple of days ago. Am finally catching up with my life. So here I am!
This entry will be dedicated completely to my radiation therapy. I know I already explained a bit about my radiation therapy in my previous entry, but pictures and more insights will be included this time.
Right before I initiated my radiation therapy, the nurses had to mold a plastic mask for my face. This was to ensure that I would stay motionless during the therapy. Ahhh, I’m having a hard time to explain how this works, but thanks to the marvels of google.com nowadays… So I will excerpt some sections from internet of how the process is done.
The mask is actually made from a mesh material called aquaplast. The material becomes very warm and soft when placed in warm water. This requires the patient to lie on his/her back and let the piece of aquaplast to be molded around the entire face. The patient will have to wait for thirty minutes to let the mask cool down and become firm. To ensure accuracy, the mask is to be worn during the treatments to keep the head still.
Well, this process was actually entertaining for me, as it brought me memories back to plaster masks most of us made during summer camps or at elementary schools. Anyway- back to my radiation therapy… I was already aware about the fact that I had to lie still for 15-20 minutes with a mask sealed on my face on a daily basis for a month. But boy, first two days were tough! The mask was incredibly TIGHT! At few times, it sure felt like I was suffocating! As the mask was removed from my face after first two days’ treatment, you could see the impression on my forehead clearly from my mask! I swear you could play tic tac toe on my forehead! No? Well- check the picture below.
After first two days of treatment, the mask finally loosened up a bit and no longer left impression on my face. After a while, I got accustomed to my new routine on a daily basis. My routine required approximately 40 minutes of driving (one way) and 15-20 minutes of waiting at hospital, all of this just for 15 minutes of radiation therapy (don’t forget the drive back home too!). But I was barely complaining at all, as I look at my treatment as my nap session on a daily basis. After few days, I would just jump on the bed and tell nurses to lay the da mask on me, then pure solitude for fifteen minutes. Well, did I feel any pain? Not at all… I cannot feel the laser beaming on my affected areas at all. My doctor warned me that my skin would become reddened (similar to light sunburn), and I might experience a sore throat, but all of this is likely to happen in third or fourth week. Well, the best analogy I could come up with is that it feels in a way that my body’s being microwaved (of course, I have NO idea what it’s like to be microwaved). By fourth week, I finally felt the effects of radiation therapy. Sure enough, the doctor was right about my skin being reddened and sore throat. By last few days of radiation therapy, it looked like I came from a tanning salon. And the sore throat was evident in last several days, which swallowing big gulps of food became a bit of challenge for me. But in no way, both of symptoms were bothersome enough for me to pull a Tom Cruise move and jump down on couch and declare my insanity to the world. In addition to that, never once I experienced nausea through the entire treatment, which I am certainly grateful for (I heard it was different in many cases of other cancer victims).
Anyway- when I was being masked on a daily basis, it brought me memories back to my freshman year in High School. My English class was reading Alexandre Dumas’ well-known literature, “The Man in the Iron Mask”. In a nutshell, it was about a prisoner in an iron mask locked tightly in dungeon, because his only crime was being the King of France’s twin brother. In no way my story is similar as that poor man’s story, but having a mask locked securely on your face on a daily basis gave me a bit of insight of what his life was like. Hence this is the story of “The Man in the Plastic Mask” (movie coming up soon- casting selection is still in progress now)! Ha- here is some pictures of me being “imprisoned” in my aquaplast mask!
On the very last day of my radiation therapy (Dec. 10th), the nurses gave me a certification to commend me on achieving the entire radiation treatment. In addition to that, they told me that I could keep the plastic mask that endured its trails with me for four weeks! Yes, it is now sitting all maliciously in my room, waiting to snare my face in prison once again.
Lastly, I was secretly hoping that the radiation therapy would somehow give me a hidden superhero power (yea, I think I read/watch a tad too much marvel comics in my lifetime). Well- right prior my radiation therapy, I was finally growing a beard for very first time. In last decade, I was not able to grow a full beard due to ingrown hair, and this is common for people with curly hair. This would lead to multiple small red bumps all over my face/neck area. Instead of enduring through ingrown hair, I would just shave them off and sticking only with goatee. For the very first time, ingrown hair wasn’t an issue for me after chemotherapy. Apparently it made my hair become thin (chemotherapy is known to change people’s hair texture, so it’s possible that I won’t grow curly hair ever again. who knows). Basically, I saw and seized the opportunity to grow a full beard prior my radiation therapy. Yep, I grew my beard throughout the entire radiation therapy. Oh, in case you guys are wondering; yes, radiation therapy does cause hair loss, but ONLY the specific areas that are being beamed. Anyway, I have dubbed my beard as radioactive beard, and guess what? It does have hidden powers! My beard is able to glow in the dark during the nighttime! You should see the wonders I have been doing with this trick, but only con of this is that I’m no longer able to play hide and seek game in the nighttime. Oh well, you can’t win it all. :)
And of course, I’m exaggerating about my so-called glow-in-the-dark radioactive beard. But won’t it be fun if that was actually the case? Hardy har har.
This concludes my entry about radiation therapy. Yes, I’m all done with treatment at hospital for now! But as mentioned before, I am not out of deep woods yet. Just earlier this morning, a nurse texted me and notified me of my appointment with my primary doctor, Dr. Advani, on March 9th. It is when I will get final results about whether if I am in remission or not. Therefore, it is all about waiting game now. As long I am done with hospital visits for a while, then it’s all good!
I will do ONE more entry sometime before March 9th (plenty of leeway for me- ha). This shall summarize my feelings and insights toward my entire ordeal. Just heads-up for every one of you, but I have no idea when I’ll submit this entry anyway. Just check my blog anytime before March 9th.
In the meantime, may the year of 2011 bring plenty of laughter, memorable times, and good health for all of us!
til’ next time,
adam j.
