Eardrum punctures and Cyberknife adventures

I had to delay my first Cyberknife treatment, which was scheduled for yesterday, because my never-ending cold has now settled into my chest and I have a cough that rivals the sound of my motor scooter's engine. Besides just feeling lousy, I was worried that my coughing would shake my head too much for the Cyberknife. It tolerates small movements, but shuts down if the movements are too severe.

So instead, I called my primary care doctor, dear Dr. Chan, who answered the phone with the same phlegm-laden voice I have right now. Yes, he has this cold too. God bless him, he sent an order to the pharmacy for codeine cough syrup, and last night I had my first good night's sleep since this cold settled on me.

This morning I went back to Dr. Gupta to get the tube put in my eardrum. There was a lot of fluid backed up in there. It's nice to be able to hear out of my left ear again. My neighbors will no doubt be glad not to hear my TV too.

This afternoon, my adventures continued when I had my first Cyberknife treatment. The cough syrup did its job, with a little help from an adivan, and I actually napped through most of the hour-long session. The most impressive thing about today was how exuberantly I was greeted and hugged by all of the nurse techs who have worked on my case in the three different sets of treatment I've had there, when we all happened to converge in the main hallway at the same moment. It really made me feel good to have such a warm reception, despite being there for such an icky reason.

I met with Dr. Gillis and she explained that as she and Dr. Tse were designing my treatment, they saw an opportunity to further reduce my chance of a recurrence by zapping a deeper area under the original tumor site, along with the tumor remnant they saw on the MRI. This means a total of five treatments, which will end on Wednesday.

And then, I hope I can resume a mostly appointment-free life for awhile. However, this hair ain't growin' back, so I need to develop some sort of Phillip Johnson look for myself.