Tomorrow morning I head back to the Cross to start what I hope is the last round of prep before we seriously get into the therapies. At 0900 I will go to the lab, tell them the real truth about the stuff I’ve been putting into my body lately, allow them the samples of my precious fluids and wait for them to tell me that I’m healthy enough to get on with things. At 1000 I am scheduled for some sort of ‘exam’ with the Chemotherapy department; I don’t have a lot of detail, but I suspect this one will be with the lovely Dr. Skoski to finalize the treatment schedule.

On Friday morning at 0936 (odd time, isn’t it) we go for the first radiation therapy session. This is the one that I’ve been dreading. Remembering what I’ve said about the mask and the way the session was explained to me, I’m a bit nervous about the claustrophobia. Gail will be with me and we’ll make sure to take the atavan along with us, just in case.

So, part of this week will be building the ‘delivery roster’ for the next seven weeks; who is going to be responsible for getting me to and from the Cross each day of therapy. I’d like to think that, with the exception of the chemo days, I can handle this myself. I may be able to do it so long as the claustrophobia doesn’t get the better of me and force me to use the atavan. I really do want to be somewhat self reliant. Macho bullshit? Independence. I do appreciate what everyone is doing for me, and wants to do for me, but there are some things that I’d like to be able to do for myself. Driving back and forth to radiation therapy is one of the things. If I can do that for myself, then I can make a better case for getting back onto one of the projects at work. Obviously, because of the compromised immune system, any work I do will need to be through the wonders of technology and telecommunication…