Well, despite my saying otherwise, today was my birthday. Attempting to put it back until after my treatments finish and I am at least some of the way back to health was a purely selfish idea I guess. My family wanted to do something to mark the day, so we did. A few cards, a few presents, an attempt at the cinema (an attempt only, sold out - should have booked the tickets earlier) which turned into a DVD instead. Nothing major - no party or cake (which I can't eat), but just enough to spend some time with family and friends. A nice way to mark the day. We'll do a 40th later (after facing cancer, a number don't scare me!) when I am well again and we can enjoy it.
Speaking of which, today was the first of the 33 treatments, a radiotherapy session. I had lots of imaging done too (by the same machine, clever!) which made the session longer than normal. It was just long enough not to feel claustrophobic under that mask, which is good, so the normal sessions should be fine.
It goes without saying, no side effects yet - these will slowly build as the irradiate the areas that had cancer, minor at first but each time they do it they will get worse. Hopefully they won't build to a point that stops me eating or drinking, but if it does at least I have the tube ready.
That's gradually settling down too, less wind and gas today, but my stomach muscles are not happy. Bending is a delicate process, as it sitting and standing back up. They just don't like being mucked about I think, in fact sitting here typing this they are complaining.
All in all a good day, thanks to that wife and those kids that didn't listen to me. It was a nice distraction from what's going on. Trust a wife to know when not to listen to you ;-)
