Fundraiser & Radiation

Sorry, I've been meaning to get back to the blog, my bad to those who check this from time to time. Just a quick catch up:

First and foremost, thank you so much to those who were able to either attend the fundraiser and/or make a generous donation. The fundraiser was a complete success!!! We were anticipating 200-220 people show, I was stunned to hear that 450 were in attendance, so much more than we could've asked for. I had an absolutely amazing time, but gotta say I was exhausted half way through. I lost my voice and actually ran to the bathroom to chill out and get away from all the madness from time to time! The manager told us that this was the biggest fundraiser they had ever had at the Blind Pig aside from a fundraiser that was put together a few years back; it was a day long event. So again, thanks to all those who came out to support. It couldn't have been done without all my close family and friends, and a special thanks to my girlfriend Susan :)

Now, back to the serious stuff. I began radiation last Monday 10/19. The week prior I went in to get myself fitted for my radiation mask. I laid down on the radiation table, the techs then proceeded to put some type of slime on my face, they spread it out over my neck and part of my chest, it was actually kind of cool, felt like I was on Nickelodeons "You can't do that on TV". The slime hardened over about a 5 min span to turn into a mold of my face. I was thinking, "hey, this is kind of cool, I got my Halloween costume (it kind of looks like a Hockey mask, like Jason from Friday the 13th). All was good, until they bolted the mask (with my face in it) down to the table. Talk about claustrophobia, never thought I had it until that moment. Wow, I was freakin out. The techs have to do it this way because any slight movement during radiation will throw off the entire treatment. I'm thinking there's NO way I'm going to be able to do this every day for 23 treatments! Luckily, each treatment only takes about 5 mins and I've gotten used to the mask now, so no worries these days!

I'm about 25% done with radiation, but I'm already starting to feel the side effects. Sore throat, slight difficulty swallowing, and the worst is probably the indigestion....all were expected. I can also expect fatigue, but that hasn't kicked in yet.

So, where's that leave us? Well, according to the Doctors, this radiation should take care of all the residual disease left on my neck and chest. If all goes well, 11/19 should be my last day of treatment!!!!! I'm prayin hard

Finally, I'm going to try and upload some pics of the radiation process, hopefully this works!