My Old-Blog - Week 4 of Treatment

We’re now two-thirds of the way complete radiotherapy, leaving just two weeks remaining. The Daft as a Brush staff members keep saying “You’re on the countdown now!”, but to be honest I’m not. Don’t get me wrong, it’ll be great to not travel into the hospital every day, but I’m not really counting down. I’ve been very lucky in that I’m not really feeling too run-down by the treatment.

Day 22 – Tuesday (5th November 2019)

On Sunday (day 20) I experienced the start of hair loss while in the shower, and by now it’s started to thin out a little more. More hair in my hands in the shower, and if I hadn’t been prepared, I imagine it could’ve been quite a shocking experience. When this starts, some may feel like they’re losing who they are – it’s important to remember that it’s a sign of the therapy working, and that you’re on the right track.

Personally, hair loss isn’t something I’m too bothered about – In my opinion; as long as it’s tidy, it’s ok.

One important point to note is that wearing a hat is so important when outdoors during the time you’re going through treatment. Whether it be a cap in the summer or a woolly hat in the winter, make sure you wear one! This isn’t for the sake of covering up the no-hair thing, it’s to prevent your head from being exposed to sunlight, coldness, or wind-chill.

Along with the hat, I make sure I have a scarf and gloves with me when outside in the cold winter weather. Keep warm folks, whether you’re going through cancer treatment or not!

*What I use to keep me warm – also could be used as an Eskimo fancy dress outfit.*

Day 23 – Wednesday (6th November 2019)

Today was another routine day – enjoying life, with a side of chemo & radiotherapy.

As mentioned in week 3’s article, I’ve begun to work more with charities. This week, along with others, I talked with a fantastic guy at Maggie’s who has awesome ideas. Since hearing his idea, I’ve adapted it slightly and come up with a plan to keep me busy over these next 8 months of remaining treatment/recovery (more on this at a later date).

It’s important to not overdo it – but if you’re feeling up to it, make sure you still do the things you used to do. Cancer doesn’t have to take over your life, just make sure you keep an eye out for fatigue!

Day 24 – Thursday (7th November 2019)

Another routine day today, although there was the slight problem of my radiotherapy machine breaking mid-treatment…

The actual treatment process (being zapped by radiation) normally takes 46 seconds. As usual, I got a little anxious before it started zapping away, then I started counting the seconds; 1, 2, 3 … 30, 31, oh crap it’s stopped!

The radiographer came in to make me aware that one of the pins (not their scientific name) on the machine had stopped working. Now, these pins control where the radiation does and doesn’t go, so they’re pretty vital. They called out a technician to fix the problem. After a further 20 mins of laying in my mask, watching the machine’s pins moving about for engineer tests, it was fixed, and my treatment was resumed.

Turns out one of the pin’s motors had stopped working. Following my treatment session being completed, the engineers replaced the motor in the machine to ensure the issue didn’t happen again. This would’ve taken a while, and will have delayed other appointments. If you ever get delayed, it’s probably just stuff like this causing it! The machines work constantly every day of the week, issues like this do occur and are nothing to worry about.

Day 25 – Friday (8th November 2019)

Today was my girlfriend’s first trip to the cancer centre with me. I hope it wasn’t too boring for her, as there is a lot of waiting around to do! We had a 40-minute delay with my treatment room, a blood test to take, and lots of post-treatment waiting for another passenger of my transport to finish their treatment.

We decided to head over to Maggie’s (once again) to wait in a more comfortable and homely space. Luckily we’d thought ahead and brought our laptops with us in the event of waiting a while – they came in handy!

Day 26 – Saturday (9th November 2019)

With living at my mum’s house in the countryside during my treatment (rather than at my place in the city), I love to get out on walks where there’s nothing but nature all around. Today my grandparents, girlfriend and I got outside and walked around 5km. It was cold, so I wrapped up again in my Eskimo gear once again.

Once back, I made a cake, a salad, watched Trolls (yes, the kid’s movie), and had a relaxed evening. If you decide to exert yourself with while going through treatment, make sure you listen to your body and know when to stop. Don’t overdo it, it’ll make you feel like crap!

My Victoria sponge – Sorry to those who are hungry now!

Make sure you also eat some healthy stuff too!

Day 27 – Sunday (10th November 2019)

On day 22 I noticed distinctive hair loss on the left side of my head, where the radiation enters during radiotherapy. Today I noticed some hair loss on the right side where there’s exit radiation. I was aware this would happen, but I did forget about it with the hair loss mainly being on the left side of my head.

With the lack of hair, I was definitely going to wear my woolly stars and stripes hat for today’s remembrance parade. I’ve been going to these every year since the age of 12, so as I felt ok, I made sure I turned up for this one too.

Day 28 – Monday (11th November 2019)

More hair loss in the shower this morning, my shoulders were littered with hair that had fallen out from. Bit of a pain to tidy up. Another trip in, another radiotherapy session, followed by the usual Monday clinic review.

Quite a few questions today in the review – Mostly about medication when I’m on my 1-month treatment break over November and December. I’m away on a cruise with my girlfriend, and I’ve been advised that it’s best to continue taking my anti-epileptic (given for 3 months post-surgery) medication with me to ensure no seizures occur while away.

Blood results all great this week. Weirdly they were better than last week’s results (which were pretty perfect to begin with), but I’m not complaining!

Onto week 5, the final fortnight of radiotherapy – let’s keep kicking Ted’s arse!

8. Week 4 of Treatment