End of an Era!

Today was Melinda's last treatment!  She made it through the two weeks of daily whole-brain radiation with flying colors.  No serious symptoms to speak of, minor headaches, and some dizziness - enough that they gave her a liter of fluids after yesterday's treatment.  They offered a steroid to lessen some of the effects of brain inflammation, which she started last night, and she thinks it is a little better today.  As a prize for making it through the latest round, they presented her with her "head cage" and a carnation...  The cage is what holds her head absolutely still during the 5 minute treatment, and was form fitted to her when she first started.  She demonstrated its use at right against the wall.  The mesh helps with claustrophobia since you can see and breath through it, but still, being bolted down to the table has got to feel strange...  Evidently the radiation stimulated her olfactory nerves, and told the techs that she could smell ozone or an electrical smell.  They told her that it was normal and some also see blue light from the optic nerve being similarly stimulated (which she didn't see).

At left, our cat Annie comes to investigate the cage.  Since I'm such a fan of moiré fringes, the shot shows the start of fringes formed by the mesh holes lining up, or blocking each other... 

So our adventure from the last 7 months is ending! No more treatments on the horizon!  She's got more doctor appointments weeks and months away, along with PET scan and MRI monitoring on a quarterly basis or so.  But otherwise she is declared cancer free!  It is interesting to be suddenly over the treatments after weeks of waiting for the end to come.  We've sort of forgotten what "normal" is like, but hope to find out in the weeks to come.  For those of you who have showered your prayers and good wishes upon us, thank you so much for your support!  For those of you in Tucson that would like to tip a celebratory beer with us, we'll be at Barrio Brewery about 5:30 tomorrow (Saturday)!  Happy Times!