Radiation Complete for E1

The long awaited day finally arrived . . . E1 (Grandpa) is done with his 44 radiation treatments. According to him, the end didn't come a moment too soon. He received a certificate documenting his accomplishment and we all celebrated his graduation by going out to breakfast.

E1 (Grandpa) has a check-up scheduled in six weeks, basically just to make sure the side effects are clearing up, but then doesn't have another doctor appointment for six months. At that point, they'll do another blood test to make sure his PSA is back to normal. Seems a bit strange to me that there isn't a need for an earlier appointment or the need for an updated PET/CT scan, but I guess that's the way they do it when it comes to prostate cancer. In other Grandpa news, we've convinced him to get his cataracts taken care of, so he has a series of appointments for that starting in mid August . . . pre-op appt., followed by surgery for eye #1, then post-op appt. ... pre-op appt., followed by surgery for eye #2, then post-op appt. Let's see, what else can we do? He does still need a follow-up endoscopy. Oh, and there is still the matter of Grandpa's bum shoulder. And he could benefit from hearing aids. Before it's all said and done, we'll have him as good as new.

E. has been officially retired for 10 days now. The folks from work had a nice little farewell gathering for him, and I think he thoroughly enjoyed himself. I wish I could say that he's been kicking up his feet and relaxing ever since, but that is far from the case. Grandpa's radiation treatments took up each weekday morning and it seems as if the kids have had one thing after another. We keep waiting for things to slow down some, but for some reason, I don't think that will happen anytime soon.

On the health front, E. has been dealing with some very uncomfortable stomach issues lately. Aside from the stomach aches and pains, he's had the raunchiest smelling burps you ever did come across. Of course, any time there is a digestive issue, I immediately freak out. In googling his symptoms (What ever did we do in the days pre-Internet?), I learned a possibility could be food, particularly food high in protein, sitting excessively long in the stomach due to slow digestion (we know slow digestion has been an issue for E. post chemo and radiation). The situation could be exasperated by other factors, such as diabetes (ding-ding). Another possibility could be a stomach bacteria or parasite. And yet another possibility could be a gastric type cancer. My freak-out mode is still in full force.

We go back to Texas on July 18th . . . so close, yet so far. Ugh.