Pull Tight

1 down 43 to go

Am I on the cutting edge of fads or what.  This old guy just got not one, but three new tatoos.  The tattoos are, however, in places you will never see unless we become very close friends. Along with the gold beads in my prostate, three small tatoos (dots really) are used to aim the radiation beam.  Actual therapy starts tomorrow. Wonder if I can interest my wife in a session of connect the dots when she gets home tonight.

Huh. Today was my appointment for my CT and MRI.  As I understand these tests are used to generate a 3D image used for therapy, which will begin in 2 weeks.  Was surprised to see one of the very 1st questions on the forms I completed "Do you have a do not resuscitate order?"  Maybe if you say yes you get to skip the rest of the paperwork.  Paperwork was a little lengthy, but..... CT and MRI were uneventful and painless.  This place seems to be very well organized and running smoothly.  After the procedures I was very tired, but I think this was just being over the stress of this first procedure.  Went home and laid down on the couch and woke up a few minutes later to the sensation of being licked on the face by 3 Westies (wonder if they knew I had been for a cat scan).  Yuk. My therapy starts in about 2 weeks.  Will be glad to get it started and then behind me.

" To understand water is to understand the cosmos, the marvels of nature, and life itself." - Masaru Emoto in "The Hidden Messages in Water" - At the end of bike rally yesterday; lunch for about 2000 was served with warm bottles of water.  Drinking the less than cool water parlayed into a discussion with my son about drinking water growing up on the farm in the 50s and 60s.  Insulated coolers were not yet common enough to have made it to Paluxy Texas.  We did have a flowing artesian well providing cool good water. Mom would take a glass jar or jug and sew a layer or two of fabric around it.  I seem to remember old jean legs were used sometimes.  We would fill up the jugs with water at the flowing well an and then wet the outside fabric.  This made a pretty effective evaporative water cooler for a few hours in the fields.  The water would get warm at a much slower rate.  We all shared the same jug with relatives, hired ha...

We have no simple problems or easy decisions after kindergarten. Wednesday afternoon, markers were placed for radiation. Three 3mm gold pellets where inserted into my prostate. This whole procedure lasted less than five minutes, but the discomfort lasted a few hours. The photo here is of the ultrasound image of the last pellet being inserted. The pellets are used (as I understand) to line up the radiation beams for each treatment. The gold becomes a permanent part of me. The cancer diagnosis seemed surreal up to the point of making the appointment for this procedure. Setting the appointment was sort of a transition to really admitting diagnosis and accepting something needs to be done.