Whole Brain Radiation, End
A little late posting this, but there you go. The last day went smoothly enough, aside from a couple of minor panic attacks on the tube, when I had to squeeze past crowds on the platforms, and I had sudden horrible visions of stumbling over my own feet and toppling onto the rails. Very tired, though: feeling as though my head was crammed full of cotton wool. Some nausea as well when leaving, which wasn’t helped by the train ride . . . but I ate a Bacon Double Cheeseburger at Euston, and that seemed to sort my belly right out. Hurrah for Burger King!
The radiologist warned me that the immediate sided effects would last for perhaps another two weeks, and could intensify over the weekend. And so it happened:
I’m typing this on Saturday morning after having just spent fifteen minutes cleaning up vomit. Felt okay this morning, had two bowls of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, sat down to the computer, and PAZAAM! Nausea struck like a . . . um . . . uncontrollable belly spasm (simile needs work, I know). The past few times when the cancer has made me sick, I’ve been able to make it to the bathroom at least. This time, I managed to get my mouth closed and my hand over my mouth, and then I was stumbling for the bathroom with vomit coming out of my nose. I only JUST managed to avoid yakking over my laptop keyboard, which would have sucked A LOT. Feeling okay now, but somewhat wary about having anything else to eat.
Still, all over now, and cleaned up. Thank God it was Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes and not something more substantial. The worst of the smell is stale milk, and it wasn’t too icky to clean up.
Headache also has returned today: the old one from before the steroids–pounding in the temples, stabbing pains at the back of my eye, etc. etc. I guess this is what the consultant meant when she said that the initial effect of the WBR may be to give me some of the same symptoms the tumour/edema was giving me. Ho hum.
Fon is on her way to Thailand now with Harry, so the house is very quiet. This weekend I’m going to try and catch up with as much of the sleep that the universe owes me as possible.
I’d better get started.
First of all, my sympathies to you for what you’re going through.
I’m surprised — yet at the same time not surprised, knowing the limitations of narrow-minded Western doctors where common sense is concerned — that your doctor hasn’t put you on a strict diet. As I understand it, a lot of cancers can be prevented by eating healthy foods. Pardon me for being preachy, but if I were in your place, the absolute last thing I would be eating would be low-grade beef, etc., from a junk-food restaurant. There’s a well-regarded book by a French doctor, David Servan-Schreiber, called “Anti-Cancer,” I think it is. In it he lists all the sorts of natural anti-cancer foods that a person can include in a meal. Switching to this sort of diet doesn’t cure a person of his cancer, but it can build up resistance in the body to cancer and prevent a person from getting cancer in the first place. In your case, I think that eating a healthy diet might strengthen your body for what is to come.
It also occurs to me that it could perhaps do you a lot of good to seek out a natural doctor — one who could prescribe vitamin concotions, etc., which might help you to feel less nauseous, etc. This did a lot of good for a relative of mine some years ago.
All the best to you.
Hen
25 Jul 10 at 09:31
Hi Hen,
Thanks for the sympathies, much appreciated. I’m not aware of Servan-Schrieber’s book, but I was generally following a fairly strict diet before the scan results–it’s in ‘Life over Cancer’ by Keith Block. And you’re right, of course, about the crap that goes into junk food, but on that day, I think it was a case of (to misquote Pascal) ‘the belly hath its reasons that reason knows not of.’ Whatever the reason was, a crappy burger settled my stomach for the rest of the day, and not puking on the train on the way back definitely counts as a win in my book. I generally don’t eat much meat, and hardly any junk/processed food, but on that day it worked.
I’ll take your advice on looking up something alternative for the nausea. I see a TCM doctor who’s been helpful with herbal concoctions to deal with low energy and recovery from surgery, so maybe he can prescribe something for sickness as well.
admin
26 Jul 10 at 05:27
Hello again, Euan.
My apologies for jumping to conclusions. When you mentioned the burger, images of a continuous daily diet of fried-up, salty, sugary, artery-clogging, fatten-me-up-boy-howdy foods flashed before me; and I thought, “Here is a job for Anonymous Internet Meddling Man — to the rescue!”
And, by the way, I have to admit that I have a pre-existing agenda: I mean that I have a strong dislike for soul-crushing, multi-national, imperialistic American corporations with big vampire fangs like Burger King (can’t be helped), so it’s physically impossible for me to pass up the opportunity to jab them with a fork between the eyes if the opportunity presents itself. But if I’m completely wrong about Burger King, I’m willing to send a letter of apology to them on my best stationery with its friendly smiley-face pattern.
I hadn’t heard of the ‘Life over Cancer’ book you mentioned, but I imagine it’s probably a good source of inspiration and can provide some helpful tips for you.
I’ve known two people close to me who were diagnosed with skin cancer. In both cases it was discovered early on, so after a quick what’s-it they were soon back on their feet.
After reading all the recent entries of your blog, I want to say that I think it’s great that you’ve been able to maintain a sense of humour during all this. Laughing in the face of little things like death, radioactive zombies on the loose and the announced end of the universe as we know it is probably the best way to deal with such inconveniences.
Your condition first came to my attention when I was looking over the “Heroic Fantasy Quarterly” as a possible submission source, and there was a mention of you there. I’ve only actually read the first three or four sentences of your story posted there — the same with the other stories — but, well, the opening looks good and I like the title. One of these days I’ll make a return visit and get through the rest of it.
–Hen
Hen
28 Jul 10 at 19:50
Hi Hen,
No apologies necessary. As for HFQ, although they’re not a ‘pro’ market by SFWA standards (not that writing short fiction is a ‘pro’ activity anyway, and rating the quality of a market by how much they pay seems a bit silly to me), the editors are probably the most helpful and dedicated I’ve interacted with. The story they published was rewritten several times to follow their suggestions–and came out much tighter as a result. They certainly know their stuff. And they’re prompt in returning emails–which is more than I can say for some other magazine editors I could mention (but won’t, for obvious reasons…). If you’re thinking of submitting, do.
admin
29 Jul 10 at 01:05
Thank you for the recommendation, Euan. HFQ seems to have everything I like in a magazine with the exception of it being an online publication instead of a print one. Yes, I agree that it does seem silly that magazines can be referred to as”pro” based on how much they pay.
You probably already know about it, but there’s an anthology competition going on right now at Rogue Blades.
Hen
1 Aug 10 at 03:22
I didn’t know about it, and I’ll go and look it over. Thx.
admin
1 Aug 10 at 04:12
My pleasure. I forgot to mention that there are actually two competitions going on at the moment. The deadline for one is September 1st and the other, I think, is October 1st.
Hen
2 Aug 10 at 05:13