Ten Down. One-third of the way there

Disclaimer: This post is being written by Anita, Jim's wife. I know many of you are probably wondering what is going on, now that Jim has had 10 radiation treatments. He was too tired to dictate anything tonight, so this will be an update of sorts for now.
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So now we were all set for radiation treatments - the tube was in and the mask was made. The first treatment was Thursday, March 15th. He has a total of 30 treatments to go through, ending on April 25th.

This first session took at least an hour. They had to recheck the mask, make sure the machine was set up for him, etc. I don't know all that goes on in that room. He heads down the hallway to change into the gown (he gets to keep his jeans and sneakers on). I wait out in the waiting room. At the first session, the dietician met with me for like 20 minutes to make sure I knew enough to keep him well-fed. I imagine I'm not like a lot of the spouses she meets - I actually cook, and do it quite well. I know about combining protein grams, healthy eating habits and buying organic. She was Indian (now THERE is a culture than knows how to eat well without fatty meats!) and we got along fine. Yes, he has the tube but the goal is to keep him eating by mouth for as long as possible.

Jim drove up and drove back. We stopped by Bob's Giant Burger on the way home and he got a huge chocolate milkshake and an order of fries. It all tasted quite yummy to him.

Unfortunately, that didn't last long. After the 3rd or 4th treatment, he started to notice that there was very little difference in flavor between the food he was eating and the napkin sitting in his lap. We knew this was coming; there's not much you can do about it.

The doctor sees and evaluates the radiation patients on Wednesdays. Jim's had two such reviews and both times the doctor has been pleased with how everything is going. This also gives Jim a chance to ask any questions he's been thinking about over the past week.

So far, there isn't any real redness or soreness to the neck area. If you didn't know he was undergoing radiation, you couldn't tell. Seriously, I thought he'd be all red now. Maybe that's yet to come. The biggest challenge is food and eating. I've stopped giving him ultra-tender meat in favor of ground meats. (I'll have to post my recipe for mini chicken meatloaf with curry-leek sauce).  :-)   Still, it's hard for him to eat. We look at it like it's a J-O-B. One of Jim's favorite sayings to me when I'd complain about work was, "That's why they call it WORK. If it were fun, they'd call it FUN." So we look at mealtime as a job that needs to be done. He still has the 2 cans in the morning. I think we're probably heading for more cans and less food here pretty soon.

He's still driving up and back each day - 60 miles round trip - but he LIKES to drive. I sit in the co-pilot seat with my headphones on because I'm just not a fan of talk radio. But hey - the guy is going through some rough stuff right now. He should be able to listen to whatever he wants, even if it is a bunch of spoiled, whiney-ass lunatics. Some days, we play drum corps CDs very loud. That's fun! I put the headphones away when that's on. I wonder what the people in the cars next to us think when we roll up to stop lights. (In fact, the Hawthorne Caballeros are playing on my Zune right now as I'm writing this!)

He's pretty tired after each treatment and usually naps once we're home. The sessions are now all at noon, so this works out pretty good. After a nap, he will watch TV and maybe read his email. In short - he's taking it pretty easy.

We got out last Saturday for errands and a quick trip to the winery. I don't know if he'll feel like getting out of the house every weekend, but we'll take what we can.

So that's how we're doing. We're one-third of the way through the treatments.