Hair today - gone tomorrow

I knew it was going to happen. Radiation does that to living cells but it doesn't reduce the impact of seeing clumps of your own hair in your hand, on your pillow and all over your shoulders. Last year I had a huge bald patch the size of a saucer which grew back 3 months after treatment. The regrowth was thick, black and no hint of grey. That regrowth , about 4 cms long is now on my pillow.

I will hopefully be able to manage moving my part further left and doing a comb over to the right until the growth starts in spring. A small price to pay but very demoralising when you are already at the lowest ebb

The colour chart

Not surprising given the fact I had been poisoned by some pretty strong radiation and was on drugs to help with side effects that also suppressed my immunity that I have been hit by "the bug" that seems to be doing the rounds. Nothing like infected sinus, throat and ears to add to the post radiation hangover headache and general malaise.

Ahubby took me off to the Dr. Now I am not a prude or squeamish in any way. I served on a human medical research ethics committee and saw and read alot. I cut the umbilical cord at Kingsley's birth and inspected the placenta, I have spent time in ICU where there is no false modesty and I have had my brain exposed on an operating table twice. However there are still some medical questions that make me uncomfortable. Without wanting to gross my limited readership out my fabulous GP was interested in the colour of my nasal discharge. When I obviously failed to give a detailed specific answer he suggested I could do what another patient does and bring a paint colour chart sample in to show him the exact shade. I kid you not. Who would have thought to be that prepared for a medical visit and the Dr swears it is a true story.

Band Camp

Kingsley is currently at band camp. The school are calling it a camp but technically it is a May music festival held on school grounds during the day on Friday and Saturday for an additional fee of $80 to cover food!. No sleeping bags or bunk rooms but an extended music lesson/ choir sessions for 8 hours in total.

Kingsley came home last night around 7pm thrilled to have won a mini mars bar in the talent competition held at the end of the day. Unbeknownst to us she had done a solo clarinet performance and Ahubby and I are proud of her for taking a risk in front of her peers and having a go. I need to advise there were only four prize categories .

The culmination of today's activities is a rehearsal version of the music concert the school puts on each June. It is usually held at Melba Hall and the University of Melbourne as we didn't have facilities on site. This year as our new high tech hall is completed it will be held at school. Tickets are usually limited so today Mili and Phili are joining Ahubby at the 2.15 finale performance. I am home, rugged up in front of the gas faux fire trying to shake a dreaded (cold) bug I have managed to pick up while recovering from radiation treatment.

I did send the camera up with Ahubby so may be able to post something suitable later.

It will do your head in!

Sorry for the confronting photo but I needed to explain the recent break in transmission. As some of you are aware I have been on a rollercoaster journey since Feb last year battling a war against brain cancer. No history, perfectly healthy non smoking non drinking just turned 40 year and then diagnosed. There is too much medical drama for one blog entry but suffice to say not even a five hour craniotomy, 7 weeks of combined radiation and chemo followed by another 6 months of chemo last year did the job. A second craniotomy occurred in Feb this year with the devastating news there was more tumour in post operative checkup at the end of Feb.

For the last week I have been undergoing stereo tactic radiation surgery ( I let you google that if you want to know more) . To do this you need to be immobilised- don't want those dangerous radiation beams hitting the wrong spot and causing blindness! They used to do it by screwing a metal brace into your forehead ( after administering local anaesthetic) but now they custom make the mask.

I thought you might like to see some of the pics from when my face mask was built for this treatment . The strips can see underneath are heated to 70 deg and stretched into place as a brace under the mesh cover. Yes it is quite warm going on your face! I had to wait for them to cool aided by the technician who placed damp towels on my face. The top layer has tiny air holes but being constricted like that is not pleasant especially when the nose and mouth are covered and you can feel and taste the warm plastic against your lips. Again it had to cool and the whole process took an hour. I then had to have a CT scan wearing the mask. This mask has a full back which was also made by a mould ( which is why my hair is in a hair net) . ie my head is fully covered front and back during treatment. This clips into the front half you can see and both sections are hooked into the radiation machine to immobilise you. Each of the three sessions was around an hour duration with the usual side effects ( nausea, brain swelling, fatigue, hair loss etc) and the 20% chance of permanent damage to my eyesight as they went very close to the optic nerve. So far so good but the damage can be delayed up to 3 months so keep your fingers crossed.

Yes - there was no mouthpiece/opening and while there are holes in in the mesh when you are anxious and already hyperventilating you really don't get full oxygen intake. The mask is that tight that you can't move your chin to lick your lips . Sure you can open your eyes but the view is not clear. You can see light and outlines but no definition/detail.

I promise that the next post will return to regular non medical programming! Thanks to everyone for their concern and best wishes. Now that I am getting stronger I will be back checking out and commenting on your blogs regularly again.

Standing By

TeamSAK apologises for this break in transmission. We will return shortly.

I couldn't find a picture of television test pattern to put here!