the ark

Radiation is rather uneventful. Judging by the word, you would think I would have a long, energy-charged story of epic proportions. Energy-charged, yes, but not epic.
We arrived in Hollywood at about 1pm. The treatment rooms (about 8 of them) have different names. As I approached mine, it was the only room with a biblical name. It is called “The Ark.” As you well know, the ark was what God used to save Noah and his family from calamity. I thought it providential that this room would, in some sense, be my ark. The sign next to the door was encouraging as well.


Shortly thereafter I was being lined up on the treatment table. Using some green laser lights, they lined up my tatoos to the machine. Then they put my mask on. The mask is a mesh material that fastens to the table, over my face, to keep me from moving my head during treatment.
After a couple of x-rays, I was approved for treatment. For some reason all the therapists left the room. You know—”It’s very safe… but we’ll be in this protective chamber watching you on camera!” A few seconds later, a buzzing sound started and continued for less than a minute. The machine then rotated around me and buzzed again for less than a minute.
Then the therapists came back in the room, untied me, and said, “That’s it—we’ll see you tomorrow.” Seems strange that something so dramatic could be so simple. I felt nothing, and was done quickly. The rest of the afternoon, I unpacked stuff with Dana in our “Kaiser Apartment” near the hospital.
Physically I’m still weak—weaker than I expected at this point. Chemo damage is clearly going to hang on for a while. My biggest challenge right now is a heavy chest and cough that gets worse at mid-day. By the early afternoon each day I’m a whipped puppy. Over the coming days, radiation is supposed to make me weak too—we’ll see.
Below I’m posting two more pics of CT scans that I hadn’t seen yet. The first shows a front view of some of my cancer as it was in September. Not all the affected areas are shown here, but the ones that are, I highlighted in red. The second picture shows the same exact areas now—completely normal.