then there was ONE

i have only one radiation treatment left! if all goes as scheduled, monday will be my 34th and last radiation treatment. praise the Lord, i am really excited to be almost at the end of that part of the process. the doctor tells me he will do some scans and an MRI sometime soon after my treatments end. i admit i am a little anxious about what will show on the new images.

the end of my radiation treatments means a few welcome changes to my routine. not having to go to the hospital every day of the week means i can return to riding my vanpool to work more often. that is a great blessing, as it saves me lots of money and stress and lets me sleep a little bit later each morning. not doing radiation every day also means i do not have to take my chemo pills every day either. i will be going to a every-day-one-week-per-month rotation on them. my chemo IV will continue to be every other week as it is now.

my energy levels have been really low the last couple weeks, and my radiation doctor tells me i should be feeling much better after ending the treatments. he tells me it will take about the same time to start feeling back to normal as it did to really start feeling tired. so i take that to mean it will be 3 or 4 weeks maybe.

i think the biggest blessing of ending my radiation treatments means i can shave and get a haircut for the first time since mid-february (actually i haven't had a haircut since january 9th, nor shaved since february 2). i am going to wait until i can get a haircut, but i am looking forward to shaving most of all. i'll be sure to post some good before/after pictures when i do. i appreciate my friends, family, and coworkers forbearing with my mountain-man looks and hygiene for the last 3 months.

thank you all for your continued prayers. i am taking my third and most aggressive IV chemo treatment on tuesday. i will be getting my new CAT and MRI images very soon (possibly next week) and would love a good report from those. so please continue to pray... for healing, for strength, for grace to say it is well and praise God whatever comes my way.
john