First day was the long day! Since it was the first day of my radiation they did some extra imaging and marked up the mask you see me wearing there on the table. With the radiation techs having to do the extra stuff today, in total I ended up having to be bolted down to the table for just over an hour. Let me tell you, having your head rest on a piece of plastic and then be bolted down with that mask and then the table is basically just wood, no padding. Needless to say it was no walk in the park. That piece of plastic was pushing into the back on my neck just at the bottom of my skull. As you can see from the picture of my face, it was tight. The mask was molded weeks ago and I have been on steroids for a bit which caused me to gain weight. That plus the pressure thats needed to make sure i stay still during the radiation caused the honeycomb look.
Back in June 2006, the summer before my senior year of high school I started this rollercoaster ride and was diagnosed with Leukemia. Then fast forward two years of treatment with chemo and a few hip surgeries including having both my hips replaced. I still managed to graduate high school in 2007 while fighting cancer and treating. I took 2 years college tuition as my make a wish and determined right there that I was going to beat cancer and be a college graduate. But little did I know that I was going to have another fight with cancer in the form of brain tumor come May 2013. A Grade II astrocytoma to be precise. I ended up having to put college on the back burner to fight this battle and I came out on top again. Now what brings me to why I'm starting this blog. I recently managed to fulfill my dream and graduated college on May 9th 2018. Unfortunately only to find out the very next day that my tumor had come back and appeared to be a higher grade.