CSTAR

What a day!

1. Today started with a scary situation. A strange, yellow-brownish watery liquid was coming out of my left nostril to start my day. Great. We immediately thought it must be spinal fluid, which is one of the worst symptoms following a craniotomy. Spinal fluid leakage would indicate brain trauma, which is bad.

2. However, after arguing with Mary Ellen (Dr. Chandler’s nurse) about the fact that “no it is absolutely not blood or snot!” (WHY DON’T THE “PROS” LISTEN TO THE DAMN PATIENT?”) we were told it will wait until our next neuro appointment, which is tomorrow afternoon.

3. Then, a genius suggested that it is probably some sort of drainage from the bellybutton fat that was used to fill my sinus when they reconstructed my head. This seems to make the most sense, as Dr. Pelzer called me later in the day and, after a series of questions, came to the same probable conclusion. We op-checked it by having me keep my head between my legs while on the phone. Since this didn’t induce more fluid to drain, it is probably not coming from my brain. Yay.

4. This situation ate up the whole morning, so no physical therapy, in case anyone was awaiting the outcome of the PT throwdown ’07.

Off to radiation!

1. Radiology oncology was running behind today, so we had to wait a couple hours to start my first treatment, which is fine since I am so patient in nature. That’s a joke at my expense. Haha.
How unpleasant is radiation treatment you ask? Here’s my totally accurate (perspective error aside) narrative [internal dialogue in brackets]:

Operator: okay Mr. Schrank, just lay down here and we’ll put this cushion under your legs and this other one under your shoulder like you requested to keep you comfortable.
Me: okay, thanks buddy!
Operator: Okay, so now we are going to put you in the mask [Iron Maiden…EXCELLENT!] and bolt it down [movement = bad] and then we are going to shoot lasers [air quote Dr. Evil “laser”] into your head from five different angles to minimize tissue damage in any one area.
Me: okay, thanks buddy
Operator: You like Phil Collins?
Me (muffled from mask [IronMaidenExcellent!]): mffHellNo!mfmfmPhilCollinsSucks!mfmfmmfmf
Operator: okay, I’ll put in the greatest hits and turn it up
Me (muffled in the mask): NOOOOoooooo……
Operator: …I see your true colors shining through…

—– break in story: Phil Collins is bad enough, but Phil Collins doing a cover of Cyndi Lauper? It’s like washing down rancid fish with someone else’s vomit…hard to figure out which is worse, but there is definitely a synergy that makes the net effect MUCH worse than the sum of the parts. And yeah, he was actually singing along. I couldn’t decide which I wanted to drown out the other. Back to the story ——

Operator: sooo sooo sooodio! [WTF does that even mean?]
Me: [someone end this, its not worth it, I’ll take my chances with the cancer…]

2. This goes on for the longest 15 minutes of my life. Tomorrow we will be listening to the Slipknot 9.0:Live album during treatment, because that is what I am bringing. The nice thing is that the Phil Collins took my mind off the fact that I could actually taste the radiation, which is flavored like a blend of chicken and my own flesh cooking.

So far not much in the way of side effects. This is to be expected, as Dr. Mittal has explained that radiation is cumulative. This means that side effects and the probability of complications will increase each day over the next six weeks.

Tommorrow is the rescheduled PT Throwdown ’07, as well as PCL Tech (Phil Collins Lover) music fest ’07. Viva La Fiesta!

More updates as events warrant! Below is a picture of PCL Tech (he operates the “laser”)