Three T's

On Friday, Dr Morris reminded me that he wants to hear about any new symtoms that affect my ability to walk and go to the bathroom. (Yikes.) All the nerves that control those functions go through the area that we irradiated last June.

He explained that when new symptoms develop, the cause is one of the following three T's:

• Treatment Related
• Tumor Related
• Totally Unrelated

I laughed at Totally Unrelated. It was so unexpected.

The pain in my back and leg (from the tight psoas muscle and bulging disc) is back, and I am certain that it is from those nights I jumped on the exercise bike and frantically rode for like 5 miles to try to get my blood sugar down.

Back in December, my physical therapist warned me that I would have to slowly work back up to a reasonable length of time on a cardio machine because otherwise I might stress out that muscle.  Too bad I did not remember her warning till after the damage was done.

I had been in pain for about one week when I realized I had better go back to Avante Physical Therapy for some intervention. On Saturday, I got a fantastic medical massage, and yesterday I saw the physical therapist.  The pain is already greatly reduced.  That is good news, because Dr Morris said if it did not respond quickly to the PT then he would suggest an MRI to see if there is something new happening.

He's a great doctor. He reminded me that because we can't cure this cancer, we are focussed preserving and improving on my quality of life -- and me walking around in pain is not such good quality of life.

I was a little bummed when I left because the whole appointment served to remind me how serious radiation is, and that I could still develop problems from the treatment, like bone fractures in that area. On my drive home, I called my friend, Donna, and she cheered me up pretty quickly.

I'm still completely thrilled about having had CyberKnife. I feel really lucky that I had access to pinpoint robotic radiation to seriously mess with that tumor. If in the future there was another tumor that needed to get slapped with radiation, I wouldn't hesitate to go back.

The best part of the appointment was when I got to relay the info that the tumor had actually shrunk significantly according to the October 15, 2009 MRI.

Oh, and the first doctor I talked to (Dr Laura Somebody?) showed me some yoga breathing that is easy to do and has been proven in studies to improve lung function for people with mild asthma. Cool.