Superman is Human After All !

Well. I have officially completed Radiation Treatment. It feels so great to be done, but honestly I don't feel any better yet. The doc told me I won't start noticing a change until a couple of weeks. Oh well, at least I don't have to drive my car down to Salt Lake City every day, anymore. About the pics I posted, they need a little explanation. The first pic is of my radiation team. From left to right is Allison, my nurse, then we have Preston, he is a dosemitrist(he prescribes the right amount or dose of radiation to a patient. He works alot with computer graphics as well. Next is me of course with my certificate of completion and sparlikg cider they gave me. After that is Mark, he is one of the technicians as well as Carol at the end. Those two get me positoned correctly under the machine and help me put on and take off the mask. All of those people have become very close to me through out this and there is a very caring nature to the Utah Cancer Specialists, sorry but much more caring than the Ear, Nose, and Throat center I have gone to for 2 surgeries in the past. The next pic is of me ringing the bell, a tradition on you last treatment day at the UTS. I think I rang it so hard it almost fell off the wall. The next one is a nice close- up of my disgusting red, blistered, raw neck. That actually looks a lot better than it was over that weekend. the next is another pic of the "crew".
Lastly you may have seen references to Superman in some of these blogs. the story behind that is that I tried to and apparently have been very tough through this process and have stayed relatively positive as well. My mom has made references to me being her "hero" through this and lots of talk about strength. When my dad came to visit two weeks ago, he gave me a present. The present was a plastic molded Superman 3 figure. He wanted to give me strength through this and to tell me I was like his Superman. I was actually very touched by that gesture. Any one who knows my dad, knows he is usually one to crack jokes and make light of things but I am glad he did this for me. The figure sits on my night stand now and i look at it every night when i goto sleep and every morning when I wake. So on my last treatment i get to pick a song to play during my radiation treatment and as i searched my CD library of over 1200 songs now, it came to me "Superman, ( It's Not Easy ) by Five For Fighting" . It's perfect because it is a song about how vulnerable even Superman can be. This song is very interpretive, but to me the song isn't really about Superman at all, he is a metaphor because he represents something strong and unstoppable. The conflict in this song comes from the fact that despite his reputation, the Superman that is in all of us does not always know what to do in hard situations and is still vulnerable to these situations. ie, Superman could never get cancer ! But i did ! We are all vulnerable to hard situations, it's how we choose to deal with them and how hard we fight them that makes us true hero's, possibly Superman!
I will be checked again in 3 weeks by the doc, right now it is recovery time at home. Lots of sitting in front of the TV playing XBOX . JK, kinda. i am going to try to keep up my exercise routine through this at home. I also ran into an old friend at Albertsond the other night. Good to see you, Bob. Diane and i must meet up with you guys this Winter before you leave. My mom came down on Wed/ Thurs for my last treatment and we had a grea time that day. Thanks mom for comimg to visit.
Well thanks for all your support and i will continue to update this through out! Tough part is over now !
Chris

Some Pics From My Last Treatment (THURS 8Th)

A Rough Weekend ( a gross synopsis)

Well, this weekend was no charm. My neck which previously has been really red has now started to blister and ooze. (I know it is very disgusting) It started this on Friday night. I got home from my treatment and put some Aquafore, kinda like petroleum jelly, on my neck because over the weekends I have been using that and it feels great and moisturizes for a long time. I use this other cream on the weekdays to also moisturize, but it soaks in really quickly. The cream does not get in the way of the radiation, but the jelly can, so i only use it on the weekends. Anyway i put this jelly on and about a half hour later it started to bubble and blister up and ooze a green liquid from it. This did not look good, but it also did not hurt and actually felt really good. I cleaned it off before i went to bed that night and woke up with the same blisters and pus situation. I noticed Saturday morning that it looked like a layer of my skin was coming off as well. I looked on the web around noon time and found out that you should never put oil based products on a blister from a 2nd degree burn. Well , Diane and i drove right to the pharmacy and got some bandages, cotton wipes, sterile water and burn cream (that was prescribed to me by my doctor in case i needed it). The pharmacist looked at my neck and thought it might be infected, which i possibly agree with the green color pus. Well not to get to gross but we went home and Diane (my angel) cleaned me all up and applied the cream and wrapped the bandage around my neck and the healing begins. It hurt like hell cleaning up the wounds though. Basiacally what had happened was the burn had turned into a second degree burn and the jelly aggravated it more and possibly, topically infected it. The whole first layer of my skin on my neck is gone and i am bleeding in some areas. I was doing rather well with this whole thing until this weekend came along. I lost a little of my positivity for a day or so, but i feel better now and i know this was never meant to be a picnic. It is the toughest thing I have ever had to do in my life......but i am so close to being done......six more treatments. Not sure if this neck burn is going to change anything or not, i will find out tomorrow. If it was up to me I would stop the treatments right now for good, but I know killing cancer ain't easy and i will do whatever my doc says i must. When i get down, i do sometimes go on this blog and read all the nice things everyone had said to me and it does lift my spitits to know i have such a large support group. I love you all...Thanks Again!
Chris