On the Road. . .Again

When I asked Brendan about today, he said, "We were in the car a lot!"  Yes, we definitely were in the car a lot today--and yesterday--and will be tomorrow.  But we enjoyed a leisurely morning at home before heading to Salt Lake at 11 a.m.  It was hard to leave again.

We arrived at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in plenty of time for Brendan's radiation appointment.  As Brendan walked through the parking garage, I couldn't help but notice how much stronger he's gotten in the last 4 weeks.  His neck is stronger too.  He doesn't cock it to one side anymore, like he did after his neck surgery.

Brendan picked the right elevator both times today.

Only two days of radiation left after today!

After 6 weeks, they finally remember to put the rubber pad underneath Brendan (to cushion his backside) without him reminding them.

Brendan can lie down without several hands supporting his neck anymore.

Rosemarie had him laughing about something funny!

They spent a lot of extra time today getting his neck measurements just right.

On Monday we saw pictures of the lymph node they are doing the "boost" (extra radiation) on.  They are targeting the very center where the cells are more resistant to the oxygen disruption caused by the radiation.

After all that set up, something on the scans wasn't working right so they brought Brendan to wait with me while they fixed the problem.  All together we spent close to 3 hours at Huntsman today.  Good thing we didn't have anywhere else we had to be.

This evening we are spending the night in Farmington so we can make Brendan's 9 a.m. radiation appointment tomorrow.  If we hurry, we can make Riley's (Brendan's cousin) wedding tomorrow afternoon.

After bringing in our bags, Brendan spent some time reading through some of the blog entries about his early days in the hospital.  We laughed about some of the things he remembered (like him waking up to find more IV's in his hands and feet), but some of the surgery pictures and stories were sobering to him.  So many of those early days he doesn't even remember.

While tomorrow will be another busy travel day, tonight we relaxed in front of the fire and watched "Prince Caspian."  (The perfect time to feed Brendan.)

It feels kind of strange to be packing up stuff here in Farmington.  With daily radiation treatments ending on Thursday, we are nearing the end of another chapter.