Treatment Week 5: October 27 to November 3

I’ve gone through 24 of the radiation treatments with 6 to go…YEAH!!! The fatigue continues, so I’m napping a bit more. On Friday (November 2) the radiation technicians shifted, as planned, to a more focused targeting of the same amount of radiation on the immediate tumor area. They call this a boost. When the doctor explained what this was about during last week’s meeting, I offered the suggestion that it might be useful, to the piece of mind of the patient, that they refer to this as a focus and not a boost. The boost to me implies that they are increasing the level of radiation exposure. He agreed my wording was better!

The doctor had also advised, early in our discussions, that the pre-surgery symptoms might well return as the radiation progresses and the brain swells in response and that this should not be taken as cause for concern that the tumor was re-growing. The day after the more focused radiation began, I did start to feel more of the right side numbness symptoms. I’m continuing to take anti-seizure medication (Keppra) and doing visualization to avoid seizures, too. I am also adding to my visualization a soothing action to the affected area. I also started doing foot and whole body baths with Dead Sea Salts.

Other high points of the week were:

1. Susanne and I went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. This is a family run place so is much closer to the authentic Mexican cuisine, that I’ve gotten acquainted with on my previous frequent business trips to Mexico, than many of the so-called Mexican restaurants that are around. For instance, they make their own taco chips on site…YUM! We thoroughly enjoyed the food and the time together away from home.
2. I was taken to the Sunday morning breakfast by Rick Eastburn. He owns a Pontiac Solstice convertible so, even though the weather was bit cool, he had the top down as it was a sunny day, with passenger compartment head on. We had a great time driving down the freeway, fast enough for a thrill. It was good to see the regular gang that comes to this breakfast.
3. Due to the hair loss, I wanted a hat that was a cut above the baseball cap or knit wool that was the extent of my hat wardrobe. We found a place in downtown Cleveland that sells nothing but men’s hats, The Mad Hatter, and went there after treatment on Monday. The clerk suggested several possibilities that we looked at. I tried them all on and got Susanne’s opinion. What I settled on was a brown beret. It’s been fun wearing it around, and I’ve gotten many compliments on how good it looks on me and teasing about looking like a French artist.
4. On Thursday I offered the Invocation at the Toastmaster’s meeting. The topic was Equality of Men and Women so I read “" The world in the past has been ruled by force, and man has dominated over woman by reason of his more forceful and aggressive qualities both of body and mind. But the balance is already shifting; force is losing its dominance, and mental alertness, intuition, and the spiritual qualities of love and service, in which woman is strong, are gaining ascendancy. Hence the new age will be an age less masculine and more permeated with the feminine ideals, or, to speak more exactly, will be an age in which the masculine and feminine elements of civilization will be more evenly balanced." (‘Abdu’l-Bahá: The Compilation of Compilations, Vol. II, “Women”, p. 369)
5. Friday I led the meditation class, that John and Laurie Cunningham hosted at their home twice a month. Our friends Vanessa Mullins and Joyce Ashman joined us. The class was in three parts. First we read and discussed the Bahá’í Writings that are interspersed between “Medical Treatment, Prayer, Joy& Laughter” on the Three Tools of Healing poster . Second, I shared the journey of prayer, meditation, and visualization that I have been on since I first got the diagnosis of the tumor. I indicated that the work I was doing pre-surgery was from limited knowledge and much more being guided by the Spirit. After leaving the hospital, I was given a copy of "Love, Medicine, and Miracles" by Dr. Bernie Siegel. I read some extracts from it and indicated that it had profound impact on furthering the journey as I was heading into the cancer treatment. Third, for the meditation exercise, I played CDs of The Long Healing Prayer and a guided imagery by Belleruth Naperstek. I had a wonderful time doing this and many of the participants commented that they really liked it.
6. We were invited to a surprise birthday party for our friend Louise Mosher. The party was right around the corner from my son, David’s apartment, so we stopped in for a visit with he and his wife and grandson Aidan. It was a wonderful visit. He shared with us that he had a great time attending a Halloween costume party dressed up as Uncle Fester from the Addam's Family. He dressed up his ear to ear surgery scar in doing so. He and I came up with next Tuesday as another lunch date! The party was people from various areas of Louise’s friends, we know her through Landmark Education, so it was a nice opportunity to both meet some new people and see some old friends.