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.

The latest

My ear:

I had a hearing test on Tuesday, which showed two things:
- I have significant hearing loss in my left ear....but
- there is no neural or brain damage related to this. It's just a lot of fluid backed up behind my eardrum. Dr. Gillis thinks the radiation may have played a part in it by drying out the wax in my ears, thus blocking the fluid's egress. Next Thursday Dr. Gupta will pierce the eardrum and install a tiny drainage tube. I should get most of my pre-brain tumor hearing back. Not having a hellaceous cold should help too

Cyberknife:

This morning, Kevin and I drove down to the Radiation Treatment Center where Dr. Gillis explained the procedure and its risks and had me sign the consent forms. Then we met Dr. Tse, who is a neurosurgeon in Redwood City and works with Dr. Gillis frequently on Cyberknife procedures. Dr. Tse explained the mechanics of how the Cyberknife works and that it's particularly good at zapping masses too deep in the brain to reach with a scalpel.

A new mask was created for my treatments,(to snap my head down to the board.) and a CT scan was taken. Tse and Gillis will use that scan together with the MRI that's being taken in Redwood City tomorrow to determine their "beam design". The actual treatments commence next Wednesday and end on Friday, 3 treatments in all, each lasting about an hour.

Good news on the Decadron front. I only have to take it on the three treatment days. This is very good news,since I'm only just now losing my toddler tummy and looking like my old self again.

Crap! Crap! Crap!

On Tuesday I went down to Redwood City to have my post-surgical MRI and follow-up exam with the neurosurgeon, Dr. Lavery.

Unfortunately, the scan was not the nice clear image I had hoped for. A small mass is still visible where the last tumor was removed.

So now I'm about to have a radiation procedure called "Cyberknife"' wherein a robotic arm will be programmed to zap that one little spot with multiple beams of radiation. This requires me to go back to Redwood city for another MRI and then to south San Francisco to consult with Dr. Gills next week, with the treatments beginning the following week. To me, one of the worst things about this is I'll have to go back on that awful steroid, Decadron.

I'm trying to be a good sport,, but this latest news really has me down. It doesn't help that I've come down with a cold.

Santa Baby

More progress: I can tie shoelaces and wear button-fly jeans again. I am typing this with two hands, though somewhat clumsily. I go out now without my cane. My blood sugar continues to be low.

I went to physical therapy on Monday and Sara taught me some exercises to strengthen my fingers, using rubber bands and playdough.

I really don't have any right to ask Santa for anything more this year, but I have a few requests, as you might imagine, which I'll keep between him and me.

I'm looking forward to getting the staples removed next Monday, as they are starting to hurt when I lie down and it wakes me up several times during the night.

I've disconnected all the old computer equipment and my desk looks much nicer. My new Apple wireless base station is also a 1-terrabyte backup drive that automatically backs up everything on my Macbook every hour. I hope to get more decluttering done this week, if my energy level allows.

A Good Purge

I don't know exactly why I'm so consumed by the task of decluttering my lived-in-for-eighteen-years apartment,but I am. Decluttering started officially today when Kevin and Rene took 18 boxes of books and CDs to the Friends of the SF library book donation center. Next, week, Kevin and I will box up clothes and miscellaneous crap from my hall and bedroom closets, and I'll get the neighborhood thrift shop to take away all of those boxes as well as the bookshelves emptied by today's hauling out. Then there's all my old computer equipment to recycle.

On the health front, I'm off the decadron now and my blood glucose level is going steadily down. I've had a couple of really fatigued days,and I'm taking these as reminders to nap more. My body is very slowly returning to its normal shape.

The arm and hand are stronger every day. I can turn and pull on a doorknob with my left hand provided the door itself isn't too heavy. I now consistently use both hands to wash dishes. The hand seems to remember what it used to do and I just let it try. It isn't always strong enough, but it often is. I hope this rapid improvement continues. When I can manage shirt buttons and touch-typing with two hands again, I'll know I'm fully back.

New Toys!

I think I overdid it yesterday. I've been a limp rag all day today, and felt very lucky to have Kevin and Robert to help me get my new Apple toys up and running and get files copied over from the pc, which only Robert was able to figure out.

I'm typing this on my iPad, which is a wonderful little device. I see much fun ahead with it.

As far as progress with my hand, it is much stronger in its grip and I can zip up jackets and pull up pants and I've even started giving Junie her shot using both hands. I didn't do my exercises today, but I will tomorrow. Happily, I can report that I took no insulin today, so perhaps my body is already detecting the reduction in decadron dosage.

Meanwhile, i have the diversion of new toys!

The latest feat

(taken while we sat in Peet's Coffee waiting for the house cleaners to finish my apartment.)

Just to show my progress. Today the hand can grasp and put thumb to each finger, but not with any real strength. Kevin scored me some free barbells from a neighborhood gym which will help me build up that arm soon.

I can walk almost normally. My arm automatically starts to move when I'm doing some action it would normally participate in and my hand no longer feels heavy and dead. I'm able to do way more with the therapy dough (roll, grasp, pinch) than I could before. And by the way, I zipped up that jacket by myself!

All my new Apple stuff has arrived. Kevin and I are going to tackle the cutting over project together tomorrow.

I'm exercising faithfully, so I really expect some new gain in the hand each day.