Half way down

Yesterday (Monday 25th) Jen had her 17th session of radiotherapy out of an anticipated 33, marking the halfway point. The side effects are beginning to be more noticeable now, and will continue to increase. Jen is experiencing more fatigue, especially at the end of the day, although she's managing to keep walking the dog on most week days. There's also some localised skin damage, and some problems now with swallowing, which is restricting what Jen can eat.

So far she's managed to drive herself there and back each time, and is hoping to continue that as long as possible. Thus the impact on my own schedule has been minor. However the time taken each day adds up: half an hour's drive each way, then about half an hour being treated (of which the actual radiation is only about five minutes). Then there are the days on which the machine breaks down, or there are delays, or Jen needs to see the doctor (once a week). In preparation for the treatment, Jen has people drawing lines on her body, and getting her to hold her arms extended past her head while lying down, so it's not very comfortable or easy. On a couple of occasions she's had a treatment on a Saturday morning rather than a weekday, so you can imagine that the treatment does mess up any routine, since it's at a different time each day.

Chemotherapy was an opposite experience -- only two long sessions every three weeks, but with a brutal rollercoaster of side effects over each three week cycle, and stretching on over five months.Radiotherapy is more intensive in time, and last only six weeks. The experience of the side effects is like a long downhill slide, knowing that each effect will only worsen over the total number of sessions. At this stage, though, Jen still has more energy that she had during most of the chemotherapy (and we have more of her).

At the moment we're starting to plan for our trip in third term. We've told Primus's school that he'll be away, and they have very graciously decided not to charge him almost any of the school fees for that term. There's still a lot to organise, and there's always the possibility of a bad test result in July. But we need to keep living and hoping even with that uncertainty, so we press on with our plans.