From radiation to chemo

Today was my 10th and final round of full brain radiation. Overall the process was extremely easy and painless. My hair hasn't fallen out and I really haven't had any other symptoms. My head just started getting tender to touch which is the burn from the radiation. I won't know for sure if it worked until I do a MRI in August.

I will start another round of chemo on Monday June 30th. This round will consist of three different drugs, which two of them I have already done. I only have to do it one day a week every two weeks. Which is way better than having to sit in a hospital for four straight days. We will do three rounds and then repeat scans to see if its working. If it is showing improvement we will probably do three more rounds after that.

This past weekend we traveled to Indy for the Jegs US Open. We were suppose to race there Friday, Sat and Sunday but since the car count was low and it looked like rain on Sunday they moved Sunday's race to Sat. So we got two races in and a golf cart race before we loaded up and hit the road to St Louis. They were having the Super Chevy race so we couldn't just drive by a race track that was racing without stopping.

Indy was a little rough on me overall. I was struggling and not driving well at all. Other than in the golf cart race. JR, Larry and myself all entered our golf cart into the race. It was done on an 18.99 index and I will say our cart and drivers had it figured out. I made it down to four carts before turning it red. Jacks had a blast racing with us and he even helped me drive a couple of rounds.

We got to St Louis about 2 am on Sunday to sleep outside the gates near East St Louis. I was a little scared for my life that night. We all got one time trial in super pro and the quick race and there were no buy backs. I was 1 red second round in super pro and made it to the finals in the super quick before missing the tree. I haven't been to St Louis in over a year and it is probably one of my favorite track to race at. The racers from there have been nothing but supportive throughout this whole process and it was finally good to see all of them in person. I really appreciate each and every one of the racers out there. They know how to make a person feel good even during the most difficult time. I was able to forget everything and just enjoy my time at the race track with my family and friends.

The awesome aunt I am let Jacks dry his bike with the air nozzle after a rain delay

Then I watched him play in a mud/oil/transmission fluid puddle with the air nozzle. And this was the aftermath. Lets just say he got a shower outside in the hose.

He was super excited for the golf cart race.

Its not a win but it felt great to even make it to the final. I just take this runner up as a sign that I will have plenty more races in my future to win.

Love,
Jeryka

Radiation

I just finished my first round of full brain radiation.  I saw Dr Bell yesterday to go over the results from Houston.  I didn't think we would end up starting treatment the day after I saw the doctor but I was fine with it. I will do 10 treatments (1 each day for 10 days).  Each treatment will take maybe 20 mins total. Yesterday they made a mask that I will wear during each treatment. The mask was molded to fit my face exactly so I will get to take it home with me when I am done with treatment. 

This process was completely painless and easy.  A lot different than Gamma Knife. Let's just hope it works like Gamma Knife did. The doctors were really nice and worked with my schedule so I didn't have to miss work. They also let me have next Friday off so I can go to Indy to race.

Radiation will make me lose the hair I have worked really hard to grow. It will also cause fatigue.  I have no restrictions while I'm doing radiation, so that makes me feel a little better about it. They told me to just listen to my body and take it easy when I start getting tired.

Once I'm done with treatment I will start chemo again. Which I am not looking forward to but we will do what we got to do.

Love,
Jeryka

Once again

Well we didn't get the results we were hoping for. The MRI showed three new, but very small spots on the brain (that weren't on the scans I had done at home a month ago) And since there are multiple spots showing up they feel like full brain radiation would be best.  On a positive note, the previous spots that were Gamma Knifed are still gone.  So we know that I respond well to radiation.  I was just hoping to not have to use full brain this quick since I can only really do it one time. The nurse was very optimistic about doing full brain radiation. She felt I would handle it well and she told us she had seen scans that were 10 times worse than mine. So that made me feel better.

The CT scan showed the spots in the liver and lungs have grown a decent amount from the last scan. They all decreased in size and were stable after chemo in Jan but showed regrowth on these scans. There are no new spots so that is good I guess.

Right now we don't have a plan. My original oncologist at MD was out of the office today so I saw a differnt oncologist. He was going to share the results with her tomorrow and she will be getting a hold of us to start the next process.

I'm not real sure what to think about all of this. I was a little worried about the MRI since there was that suspicious spot on the one I did at home (which didn't even show up on these scans). But I felt good about the CT scans and really thought everything would be fine there. I don't think I'm ready to start this awful journey over yet again. I have had a great 4 months of being free from chemo. I just don't want to go down that round again for the 4th time. Maybe they will have something other than chemo that I can do.

I'll update when we get a plan.

Love,
Jeryka