Saturday, February 22, 2014

My First Tattoo

Friday (yesterday) was a pretty busy day. In the morning, we met to a Radiological Oncologist in Concord Hospital. In the afternoon, we went to Hookset for an infusion. And I got a tattoo. Well - actually three tattoos, but more about that later.

From reading the blogs, you probably know that I still have some discomfort in my back. It is not that it hurts all that much, but it does prevent me from doing a lot of the things I would like to be doing - mostly because I am afraid of causing greater injury. I had MRIs on Oct 24 and Feb 10 that showed deterioration between the two images. BUT - the question is: "When did the deterioration occur?" The first image was two weeks before I even started chemo, so that would be expected. On the other hand if my spine is continuing to degrade - well that is not good. I would hate to end up being "spine-less".

So, we wanted to see what the Radiological Oncologist had to say. And what did we think he would say? As a great man once said, "If you go to a barber, expect to get a haircut." So, not surprisingly, this doctor told us that I could benefit greatly by getting the radiation treatment.

To be more specific, he said that Multiple Myeloma responds extremely well to radiation therapy. He said that he can effectively wipe the cancer out of my vertebrae thus stopping the disease there.  Now, I want to check this with some other doctors, but that sounds good to me - especially, since most of the stuff I really enjoy doing requires a backbone that works.

The clincher for me was that he said I would get to have a tattoo. This was to be my first tattoo and I was pretty excited. My first thought was some sort of buxom biker chick, but I quickly dropped that idea without even mentioning it to Barbara. Then I thought of some sort of sailing ship across my chest - maybe a clipper ship. I expected them to come out with a book of samples for me to choose from.

Alas - they had something less impressive in mind. More like a dot than a ship. Well - actually three dots that they can use for positioning me under the radiation machine. So, my tattoo is not quite as large as what I would have chosen - more like the size of a period.  A small period. But I am still mighty proud of it.

We also had pretty good luck in Hookset. Apparently, those shots I have been giving myself worked pretty well in spite of the fact that there was no actual vodka involved. My white blood counts were back up high enough for to get my dose of cytoxan - along with some velcade. So that was a relief to me.

And today (Saturday) was warm (45) and sunny, so I spent three hours in my workshop installing my new heater. I made great progress today and if things continue to go well, I should have heat source in there by early summer.  

2 comments:

  1. This comment was emailed to me. Thought I would share it.

    Obviously your Oncologist is Turkish and you have been conscripted into a Turkish secret society - from the web:



    The three dot tattoo is known as "Görmem, Duymam, Söylemem" in Turkey. It means, "I hear nothing, I see nothing and I tell nothing". Having this tattoo in Turkey means a person has taken an oath to a certain society. He has to be willing to sacrifice himself in favor of the society.



    Next, they will shave your head and give you a new Harley (leather chaps, boots, blah, blah. - but no biker chicks!) Barbara will be your cover, so you look like just another old, bald, biker fart, with a really cute, trim babe. Then when your society calls, your handler will say the magic word and hit-man Warren will strike terror into the Meredith community. We're watching you !!!! See something, Say Something !!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is great news!!!!

    I have a turtle tattoo so maybe when this is all better, you can get a tattoo of Barbara…a really cool chick!!!!

    Love, Hugs and lots of energy,

    Joan

    ReplyDelete