A Surprise Ending

A toast to you, my dear friend. We had a great ride together. I miss you already.
You would have been so interested in everything that happened yesterday. Here's your final EKG strip.
No more suffering....

Another puzzle bites the dust.

It went from vexing to complete in one day. Wow! And the weeks click by. Jack is halfway through the radiation treatment, and is doing brilliantly. No side effects to report. Good spirits abound. The biggest news item is probably the hickory stick Jack uses for stability when he walks. Lin says he's known as Moses in the waiting room.



The puzzle is complete!



That would be the actual puzzle, not the human puzzle which is Jack. Little joke there. Three weeks down, four to go. So far, so good. Now on to a new puzzle for the waiting room....a ROUND one!

Radiation. Finally!

Dorky but comfortable "ugly-ass pants." perfect for a 40 second zap of radiation to kill those little tumor cells.

Caregiver II gets in on the action. Lin will be in charge of getting Jack to and from his radiation treatments. She has all the unique skill sets: good driver, knows the ins & outs of hospital oncology centers, is reliable and caring. Oh, and Jack likes and trusts her. She's one of his angels...

There are two jigsaw puzzles set up in the wating room of the radiation oncology treatment center. Nice distraction. I managed to place 3 pieces.

Here's a shout-out to whomever decided to add two fish tanks in the cancer center.One is in the radiation therapy check-in area, and the other is in the treatment waiting room. If you don't want to work on a puzzle or read a 2-month-old People magazine, you can at least watch the fish.

Jack with a tattoo? Nah.

X marks the spot. These laser crosshairs mark the tattoo location (one of three) for the external positioning each time Jack gets his radiation treatment. Every time Jack sees someone with a tattoo, even on television, he asks, "Why do people get tattoos? It's body mutilation." Jack is now the proud owner of three tattoos. Ha. Ha.

A clever little trick for keeping the arms tight against his body during the scan: this ring.

Nov. 9 - Radiation Set-Up Day

Our buddy Chris started things out. He's from Pacifica and has been with Stanford Urology for years. Next, Lillian inserted the probe, through which the long plastic sticks are inserted. At their tips are the gold-plated seeds, not radiation ones. The three marker seeds are used for 3-D positioning during radiation.

Another shot

Another Lupron shot, this time the big mother. It will last for 3 months. Status quo this week. I ordered some roomier pants for Jack. He needs to have a rotation of clothes for his daily outings for radiation in November. No constriction, no metal parts, comfort.