I am officially 100% radiated… or as I like to think of it, fully zapped. To recap the week, I received my five planned Stereotactic Radiation Treatments (SRT). To give you an ideas of what this entails, receiving radiation treatments are pretty straightforward. Essentially I lie perfectly still on a platform to which my “goalie mask” is clipped, so that I am not able to move my body around while being radiated. While I get to lie down and be clipped into an immobile position, the machine itself has several large drums that move around me and shoot the cancer-killing rays into my head. This sounds like it’s painful, but there’s no pain or any form of sensation at all (other than the snuggish mask over my puffy face!)… it’s essentially like getting an x-ray… just with more intense rays.

Earlier in the week, I experienced very little in side effects, but with radiation, the impact of the treatments is cumulative, so I am starting to feel a few side effects now. However, everything so far is tolerable. I have a continuous low-grade headache (which I can treat with Tylenol) and I’m starting to feel some fatigue (which I can treat with naps!) From what the oncology team tells me, I will likely feel side effects for about a month post-treatment. This sounds like an ordeal, but if the degree of the side effects remains as it is today (fingers crossed!), then I will survive this… no problem!

The bigger news from this week is the after-treatment monitoring plan. The first post-treatment MRI will take place in three months, and this will look at how the five tumours are responding to the radiation (yeah…turns out there are five… not four… another guy snuck in there.) This time frame sounds long, but it is the appropriate amount of time as it turns out that it takes two to twelve months for the radiation treatments to take full effect. Given this, I will have an MRI at Credit Valley Hospital every three months for the first year, and then every six months for the following two years. Beyond this, I will also be having other scans done at Princess Margaret in the next month and beyond, so I am pretty comfortable with the level of oversight going forward.

But I have other good news from the week. First, I’m finally being weaned off the steroids, which is great for two reasons – one, I may soon be able to get my first decent night’s sleep since December 6th, and two, even with just the initial reduced dose, my face is starting to deflate! Good riddance to Puffy Face! The last fun news from the week is that because I successfully completed all five treatments, I was able to ring the bell at the cancer centre…so it’s good news all around! Thanks to everyone for all of your support thus far 🙂 ! I will be focusing on my rehab and recovery for the next little while, and then working towards resuming my regularly scheduled life… Onwards and Upwards!