First week went pretty well...

Well, 3rd radiation treatment today. He's doing fine. In fact, his appetite is huge. I think he's making up for lost time now that he's fully recovered from the surgery and the treatment isn't freaking him out as much. Ate a huge breakfast yesterday for lunch, as you can see above. And ate basically the same thing again for lunch today!

Looking forward to a weekend off from treatment, then we'll be back to it on Monday! 🥳❤️

If you'd like to read more detail and see more pictures, click the "Read More >>" below.

Yesterday, we were pretty concerned about the commute - the rain was pouring down and had been for hours. Here's a little bit of video I took around 9:30am yesterday. I was worried about the pool overflowing - luckily, it did not:

He did his first fluoride treatment in the morning. I put the little drops of gel into the dental trays for him - his hands are so shaky - and he wore it for the required 10 minutes. Easy peasy.

Just before we were heading out, we got a call from a nurse in the chemo unit, checking in. He explained the anti-nausea medications to us in more detail, which helped me think of a couple questions he was able to answer. The good news is, he hasn't had any nausea at all yet. Quite the contrary!

Our worries about the drive were unnecessary. By the time we left for the 11:45am appointment, it had dried up quite a bit. Low clouds and fog, sure, but no rain. And the traffic wasn't bad either.

That's the Getty Center on top of the hill in the distance. You can even see a little green on the hillside!

Here's a picture from the parking lot showing the Radiation building - on the right, the bigger building in the background is the main hospital where every other appointment/ treatment takes place. (Okay, except for a few things that happen at the Sepulveda facility, which is MUCH closer to home for us - but a much smaller facility.)

The treatment went quickly. A nurse came and took him back to take his "vitals" while we were waiting (we'd arrived early with the easier-than-expected commute). A few minutes later, a different nurse, Jay, brought out Biff's flannel shirt and told me they'd taken him straight to treatment. He also explained that the nurses will periodically do a full "vitals" check as part of monitoring the treatment.

A few minutes later, Biff was back out, all done for the day.

As we walked back to the car, the cool breeze felt really good, so we decided to take a walk around the building. It was nice. Just the right amount of exercise for the moment.

On the way home, Biff explained that he was hungry and wanted breakfast! That's the picture at the beginning of this post. He ate almost every bite, too! More than I could have put away. Although I did have a few bites of his pancakes.

I mentioned that I wanted to go to the grocery store, and he insisted on coming with me. Picked up a bit more regular food for him to eat at home, and the staples we needed to replenish. I know he'll need to not expose himself to "people" soon, as the treatments wear down his immune system, but for now, fully masked, I think it was psychologically good for him to go.

He was able to relax and nap on and off the rest of the day. He was, perhaps, a little manic in the evening. He wasn't as hungry for dinner, but he ate a light meal, and several snacks before bedtime. Then he just had a hard time focusing on TV (he had left CSPAN on most of the afternoon, watching that clown show). He kept having thoughts about other things while we tried to watch some show or other. We finally just played on our phones for a while. We'll finish up the show some other time.

And, as it turned out, there was a little miracle last night. He fell asleep before he took his usual sleep medications - and slept through the night (okay, one bathroom trip during the night, but that's all). That never happens. I'm always so thrilled when he can sleep well at night. And right now, it is even more important.

Today, it was gorgeous. Cool, mainly in the 50s, but clear and sunny and dry.

We got another full dental hygiene session done: brush, special oral rinse, fluoride treatment for 10 minutes, then the new Water Flosser Paton sent for Christmas. Not entirely sure we're using them properly yet, but we decided to go ahead and "stack the habits" for his dental hygiene (he has to do it at night, too, minus the fluoride treatment - he's never been consistent about that stuff, but it's critically important to do it now, since radiation makes it more likely he'll have dental problems, so...).

Then an easy, pleasant enough drive in. 

No vitals check today. Straight in for the treatment. But today we met with the Radiation Oncologist, the Doctor, afterward. He's the one who handed us some material to read (more on that below). He checked the cyst on Biff's neck, which is pretty much the target for the radiation. Mentioned that the skin may develop a reaction, so we should keep an eye on it. We've already got him using really good lotion on his face - the shaving he isn't used to is rough already. Biff says the skin under his chin (the second chin?!?😏) is already very sensitive. So, we'll take good care of that.

Along with swallowing exercises he needs to do 3 times a day... We actually sent a message to that doctor (Audiology for swallow/speech), asking for the exercise directions again. He's gotten a little confused on those, so we're asking for clarification.

The Radiation doctor suggested we also ask Audiology about anything we can do to protect his speech. We'd been told before that they didn't expect there would be any permanent damage to his vocal cords, but they now understand that Biff is an actor and may want to prevent any hoarseness that could linger... So, we're asking about that, too. 

Boy. All he needs is another thing to do daily... But, gotta protect the voice. A little hoarseness won't be terrible, but he'd rather keep his range, you know?

The Radiation doctor was also happy to hear that his appetite was good, no nausea from chemo, no swallowing issues, no debilitating fatigue. However, he gently reminded us that they don't expect the side effects to be too bad the first few weeks. Early on, they expect dry mouth, maybe goopy phlegm, and possible changes to his ability to taste. As the treatment compounds, they will be watching for issues with his swallow function, sore throat, and appetite loss. 

There are also other possible side effects that can develop, such as sores in his mouth. And other yucky stuff that may be pretty miserable. Fingers crossed the side effects are relatively mild for Biff. Only time will tell.

He also reminded us that this cancer responds very well to this course of treatment. Overcoming the cancer is the end goal, although it's not all gonna be easy getting there.

I imagine we'll learn more when we do our "lite reading" over the weekend. The two booklets on the left came from Radiology today. The papers on the right were given to Biff on Wednesday at chemo, and he read some of it during that treatment. I haven't read any of it yet. Pretty sure it isn't going to be an easy read. But, hey, knowledge is power, right?

We took another walk around the building when we were done. Then Biff had another BIG breakfast for lunch, and back home. 

The drive home was nice - look at the green on the hillsides! For Southern California at this time of year, it's really nice to see that much green.

Week 1 of Treatment: Done and done!