Seidman Cancer Center, cont'd.

Seidman Cancer Center
Beachwood, Ohio

9:15 a.m.

I've got another appointment up at Seidman at noon today--another meeting with the radiation oncology team who will be working with me to zap the cancer that's moved into one of my vertebrae (#T-9). They will zap, as well, #s T-8 & -10, just in case ...

I'm not sure yet of the daily schedule (it will occur five days a week for two weeks, commencing ...?), but I'm relieved that it will not be the six weeks I experienced down at the Cleveland Clinic in the winter of 2009 (when they zapped my pelvic area, trying, fruitlessly, it turned out, to kill the Evil Cells that had avoided the surgeon's knife in June 2005).

Driving to University Circle every day in a northeastern Ohio winter was not the most ... relaxing ... thing I've ever done. Fortunately, that January was not all that odious (cold, not all that snowy), so I managed ... I'm here ...

I will add to this post when Joyce and I return from my noon appointment ...


1:30 p.m.

Back after a hectic morning/early afternoon. Before going to Seidman, I had a follow-up visit with my local optometrist re: the cataract surgeries I recently had. (All is well--very well.) That appointment was at 11, and we had to be at Seidman at noon ... but Dr. Keller is always very prompt, so we made it easily.

At Seidman they put me in a huge scanner (which rotated around me), taking final pix to pinpoint the parts of my spine they're going to start zapping--tomorrow. They also used a Magic Marker to mark (!) up my chest so that I now look like an outlaw-biker-wannabe. It's going to be fun--in the men's locker room at the health club--seeing the looks on the other naked men--and, probably, having to explain what's going on. Or maybe they'll just be, you know, afraid because of the biker thing?

The radiation sessions will go on for ten weekdays (not counting Labor Day: no labor at Seidman that day), beginning tomorrow, as I said. All sessions at 10:30 a.m.

I did not know about this schedule until today, so it did cause some ... adjustments ... in the calendars of both Joyce and me.

Perhaps the weirdest: I am scheduled at 7:30 tomorrow morning to have a tooth extracted (Step One in an implant process); at Seidman, they said not to worry about it; go ahead;  they said, "We'll work you in if you're a little late." Comforting.

Eyes--teeth--spine.

Oh, and on Monday, Sept. 27, I see a cardiologist re: my persistent dizziness these days. My theory: I'm dizzy because of all the medical procedures I'm undergoing! (Actually, I think it's my BP med; we'll see what the Expert thinks.)

Oh, and on Tuesday, Sept. 28, I see my dermatologist to have some naughty skin frozen (on my nose, of course--since there's really nowhere else more prominent).

Thank you, Medicare. Thank you, Aetna (supplementary policy). Thank you, Joyce (no room to list all the reasons--for they are myriad). Thank you, all you professionals who are doing your best to give this Old Man a few more sunsets ... more time to romp with my grandsons ... more time to be dazzled by my son and daughter-in-law ... more time to be so grateful for all that I have experienced ... more time to read and write and think and see Shakespeare and watch bad movies and stream dark detective shows from the UK and drink coffee and bake bread and laugh with friends and rage, rage against the dying of the light ...