Tuesday morning

24 zaps down, 1 lousy zap to go.

Thanks to all for your support through this seemingly endless radiation therapy. I saw Dr. VR yesterday. He told me I should do something "celebrate". I told him that's hard to do when I'm seeing Dr. R today and finding out when chemo starts again. I will miss the group of radiation techs. They are competent, positive and fun, while always being kind. I'll miss the two women I got to know somewhat - L and M. Maybe it was the regularity of seeing them every day, even if for just a brief time. Dr. VR said the radiation side effects - diarrhea, more frequent urination and tiredness - will gradually improve. I wonder how gradually.

Today is my last day of parking; tomorrow I go back to riding the bus and to regular work days. I think for a while I"m going to try to work true 8 hour days - meaning probably 9 hours, to account for lunch.

Human beings are weird. We are - perhaps by genetic makeup - so instinctively conservative. However things are for us, we may complain about our present circumstances but we get used to them, and we view change with trepidation. So chemo was scary to me until I went through it, and then it was bad, but it began to seem "normal" when it was time to move on and face radiation which I hadn't experienced and so seemed worse, and now radiation has come to seem "normal" and its side effects are at least familiar. Viscerally I feel the cells of my body calling out to me, Hey! You! Let's just leave things as they are! Nope. Gotta kill any of those cancer cells trying to do an Osama Bin Laden and use my body parts as the mountains of Pakistan. We'll hunt you down and wipe you out.

I'm gonna ring that bell today after my last radiation treatment, but not just for me, but for all people with cancer. Hey cancer cells everywhere, hey tumors - we're gonna get you!

Otherwise, peace.