Day #7 7 Down and 28 To Go

Day#7 Dermatologist Appointment and Radiation #7
I am begining to have sores in my mouth just like Dr. Holland talked to me about. These are caused by the radiation. Funny how you have to weigh the effects vs. the final outcome of the treatment. He had told me before we started " Donnie, get ready for 7 weeks of HELL", I am begining to see that he wasn't kidding. Look, I see people eveyday in that hospital that have it so much worse than I do but, this doesn't mean that my treatments are easy. I am glad I was told it would be HELL.That is what I prepared for. I do pray for those poor people I see everyday at OHSU.They are young,old,skinny,over weight,black and white people who, just like me, drew the short straw. Just the fact that I am being treated for CANCER, still hasn't quite sunk in yet. I tell Kari at least once a day, " I can't believe that I have CANCER". She is always so strong with her reply to me," You had cancer and after your RT, you will no longer have it". Some of you wonder how I can be so strong about this situation. Well, my wife Kari, is a big part of how I am handling this disease.
I visited my dermatologist today before my treatments. He loooked me over , head to toe, and thought that my Morphea was not responding in a bad way to the Radiation. Remember, It was hard to fine information anywhere in the US about how Morphea would be affected by the Radiation. So far, So good. He said - See you in 4-6 weeks.
Now it was off to the RT. OHSU is a cool hospital ( if hospitals can be cool). One building is at the bottom of a hill, down by the river. The rest of the University is at the top of a hill. Instead of driving to the top of the hill, we took the tram. Thats the cool part. There is a tram that goes from one campus to the other. It is about a 7 minutes ride up or down and it lets you see the real beauty of Portland. Okay, we are up on the hill and going to RT. Treatment went fine as usual. Did I ever mention how nice and helpful the techs are in this department. When I get called in the room, they already have my ESPN playing, thy ask me about the Saints, and they talk about whatever we chatted about the day before. This makes me so comfortable and I know it's all part of their "Master Plan"- like some science fiction movie.LOL. So, treatment done, now I head home. But one thing to remember.
Day #7 7 Down and 28 To Go.....