Wednesday evening

Zap # 2 down; 23 zaps to go.

I had my first radiation session yesterday, preceded by getting positioned on the "table" and having a bunch of x-rays taken to help line me precisely. The whole thing took about 30 minutes. I met 3 new young technicians, a young man and 2 young women (stress on young, but all nice). Then today I went to the Cancer Center twice; once in the morning for an appointment with one of Dr R's physician assistants, P. I had blood work done and then met with her. Nothing unusual. Then I tried to see Nurse E to set my appointment to come back after the radiation is all done to start the whole next round of chemo, but first the PA had to finish writing her notes in my chart and Nurse E was busy. So I left and came back in the afternoon, before my radiation appointment. Nurse E gave me a date - Feb 23 - to schedule an appointment with Dr. R, but when I tried to do that, the "scheduler" (the cancer center has people who do nothing but schedule appointments with the various doctors, PAs etc.), the scheduler said that Dr. R is not taking appointments on that date and she'd have to get back to me. Then I went for Zap #2. This time it took all of about 10 minutes. One odd thing I learned is that they zap me on all 4 sides - top, from each side, and bottom, sort of like a rotisserie chicken, and apparently for basically the same reason - to keep the overall impact on all the stuff in there balanced.

No radiation next Monday - Martin Luther King day - which means the current date for finishing up the radiation is February 16 rather than February 15th. Oh well. I am actually thinking about how to take one day off - maybe a Monday - so David and I might fly to Nashville for a short weekend visit with Aunt M, cousin C and cousin D (and D's crazy boyfriend, L - by the way, that's how L referred to himself in his very sweet and thoughtful email to me). I would really like to make that visit during the radiation rather than after, when chemo starts again, or waiting until all of this is supposedly "over." We'll see. I'm checking out fares.

I'm really tired today, likely just due to getting up at 5:30 this morning and busy day at work (plus 2 trips to the hospital). Nice talk with V today, voice messages from T and D and H, checking with me. Today spoke with my daughter - who is very worried about friends in Haiti (she spent 10 days there last year, working with an organization called S.O.I.L). News of Haiti does put things in perspective, doesn't it? Why does a major earthquake fault line run through Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world (if not the poorest), and not through Lichtenstein or Dubai? Not that I'd wish an earthquake on anyone.

Peace peace peace - this evening first and foremost, in Haiti.