Durham Rock City

Greetings from Durham, NC... aka Bull City... aka Title Town (my descriptor)... aka Rum Ham City (Devin's descriptor)... aka home, for now. We've been here since Sunday night (3/13) and I've completed my first three radiation treatments. Only 27 to go before I've achieved my destiny and have become Electro:

The weather was very stormy for the majority of our ride from Atlanta but we managed to avoid an incredible 130-car accident on our route. Click here if you want to learn more about this absurd incident or if you don't believe me and require proof. It was historic. The local news is still talking about it.
On Sunday night we checked in to a hotel for one night which set our six-weeks off on a, umm, an interesting note. Devin noticed the trashcan still had trash in it and I spotted a few stray hairs on the walls of the shower. Oh well, we thought, a lazy housekeeper but nothing we couldn't handle. We were packing up to leave the next morning when I discovered something interesting peeking out from under the skirt of the bed: a snakeskin raincoat. And it wasn't in a wrapper. Yes, seriously.

Upon checkout we politely suggested they pay extra attention to cleaning our room and explained why we felt compelled to make this suggestion. They volunteered a full refund which is why I'm not name-dropping the hotel chain. I assume the gent tent was used considering it was out of its wrapper on a hotel room floor but I didn't take the time to do a forensic analysis. I was also more concerned about the hole I'd left in the ceiling after having jumped 10+ feet in the air when I first discovered it.

The fear subsided when we checked in to the Extended Stay hotel from which I'm writing this as the clerk revealed our friends Justin and Tyler had somehow discovered where we were staying and had fully paid for our two weeks here (Thanks again, gentlemen!). There's a good chance I will develop carpal tunnel from writing "thank you" notes over the next few weeks in response to all of the thoughtful gestures we have received. Glass half full: I'd much rather keep a blog chronicling my struggles with carpal tunnel than a brain tumor. Once we got in the room I received a phone call stating we'd been approved for a grant covering part of our hotel stay at the place we're going for the final four weeks of our time in Durham. The grant is great on its own, but I'm more excited to finally have something in writing which proves I'm poor enough to qualify for a financial aid grant.

Our good fortune with financial matters did not last long. On the way back from my second treatment the serpentine belt on my car broke which lead to overheating, a loss of power steering and a loss of output from my alternator. With help from my dad (via phone) we were quickly able to identify the source of the problems and then find a mechanic who had it repaired by the end of the day. It was a setback of a few hundred bucks but I was more relieved that we were never stranded on a major road and that we were able to nurse it to a mechanic with relative ease. I don't have anything witty to say about this experience so here's a link to my 14th annual college basketball Tournament Challenge bracket group for those who are reading this before Thursday 3/17 at Noon and want to participate. Enter "gthc" when prompted for a password. It's free to enter and you can submit up to 5 different brackets but there are no prizes for winning unless you count the lifelong joy which comes from beating me at this. This is a joy felt by literally everyone who enters so, you know, cherish it. Contrary to popular belief I will not be picking Duke to win it all this year. Next year, though, next year I'm definitely picking them.

The radiation treatments themselves have been quick and painless. On the first day I didn't even know I had received my treatment until the Radiation Therapist who administered it told me after the fact. The Radiation Therapy team at Duke Medical has been really great. The closest thing I've had to a side effect so far was mild nausea after one of the treatments but even this might have been coincidental. I have no idea what kind of impact it has had on BKP so far but I'll be seeing my doctor every Friday and I suspect he will know. Regardless, I should have ample time to amass a list of questions each week so I can bombard him with important things like "where am I?" and "why is my head still enormous?" and "where am I now?"

In closing, if you're still not sure what I meant by "snakeskin raincoat" or "gent tent" then, uhh, let me Google that for you.

Groundhog Day

Ugh. Again my optimism has been dashed by a hard reality. I thought I would be writing today to say that I was returning to work, returning to normalcy and that I was done visiting Duke on a non-basketball basis. Unfortunately I am not able to say this and it no longer feels close. It was more like Groundhog Day and the rodent apparently saw its shadow.

In retrospect there were signs... Superneurosurgeon scheduled an appointment for me to meet with a neuro-oncologist before he ever saw the results of the MRI we were to review on my latest visit. The MRI showed plenty of leftover tumor - enough to make the Duke folks discuss the possibility of another operation and chemotherapy. Fortunately these possibilities were eliminated (for now). It's easy to see in the below MRI that Superneurosurgeon got all of the tumor above the cavity in my brain where the rest of it now sits.

The leftover tumor happens to be directly on the brain stem so the risk would be very high even if Superneurosurgeon were able to reach the cavity. So this leaves radiation - a possibility I knew of ahead of my recent doctors visits and one which didn't necessarily scare me. I do not currently fear the radiation treatment itself but my new radiologist (who happens to be Duke Medicine's Clinical Director of Radiation Oncology so... Superradiologist?) insists I must receive the treatment under his supervision at Duke and with Duke's $10million radiation machine which can perform MRIs while the radiation is being administered. It's a daily treatment 5 days per week for 6+ weeks. This news hit me hard. I did not want this.

For the past few days (with a short interruption last weekend to visit Statesboro to celebrate my brother's 30th birthday... Happy Birthday, Kyle!) we have been preparing to move to Durham where we will live for at least six weeks. To help soften the blow of this news I've been reminding myself that Durham is a mostly cool place in which I'll have 23 hours per day to spend however I want. Sure, it might cost us a fortune to be in a hotel and live away from home... and I'll be getting my head zapped over and over... but I'll have my wife in town with me for most of my time there and I'm happy about that. Plus I'm hoping by the time it's all over I'll develop some sort of super power under the logic that Peter Parker was bit by a radioactive spider and I will be bit by what I assume is a radioactive laser.

One of the few perks of having to get radiation over a relatively long period is that I get to wear the above pictured custom-fitted mask to keep me from moving during my treatments. I was fitted for it before leaving Duke and it's made of hard plastic. I was kind of disappointed during the mask/helmet fitting as I expected my enormous head to be too large for their warm plastic mold. Alas, it didn't even warrant a comment from the nurses. My excitement for this mask is not because it is comfortable and fashionable (it's neither comfortable nor fashionable) but because I get to keep it after my treatment is finished and therefore I get to use it to scare my dog and cat.

We leave for Durham on Sunday, 3/13 and intend to be back in Marietta for Easter weekend. After that I am not sure when I will be back but the six week treatment period ends on 4/22 and I'm strongly hoping no extension is required. One of the most common side effects of such radiation is significant fatigue so it's difficult to say what I will be able to do and when I will be able to return to normalcy. I have a follow up appointment with my Duke neuro-oncologist in early May and I'm guessing I'll be out of commission until then (at least).
We've arranged a top notch house/pet sitter (thanks Carol!) so thankfully we will not have to worry about these things. We will be staying in an Extended Stay hotel for the first two weeks and have another place booked for the rest of our time which we may end up switching if a more spacious, less costly opportunity arises. Please pray for me because, in addition to everything I've just mentioned, I will be cooped up in a small room with Devin for six weeks. And please pray twice as much for Devin for the same reason.