Four...

These visits to the hospital take less and less time... This morning, I was called in ten minutes before my appointment was due and I was on my way home by the time I should have been going into the treatment room!

There were no great excitements. I delivered my specimen bottle and the sample went off for a dip test. Something seems to have shown up, since it's now gone to the lab for culture. By the time I see the doctor on Thursday, the results may be back and I may get yet more medication! Luckily for me, although I'm beginning to get side effects, they're really not severe, so a short wait of this sort isn't too bad. In a way, it's quite gratifying that I actually recognised that there was a problem before it developed very far and that I wasn't imagining it! I think that sometimes I tend to 'wait and see' for too long because I don't want to make a fuss or 'be a nuisance'. Of course, waiting until something gets a good grip on your system before mentioning it causes much more of a nuisance than flagging it up at the outset; so, I'm going to try to remember to ask for help immediately, rather than hoping a symptom will go away of its own volition.

Other than this, nothing really unexpected happened. It was fire alarm test day, but I've now heard sufficient fire alarm tests to recognise when it's a real alarm and when it's just a test. This is fortunate, since it would be very easy to have a nasty accident by sitting up fast and either banging into the radiotherapy machinery or falling off the bed (which is very high by the time you're ready for treatment) in a rush to escape a fire.

The treatment moved from right to left today, but the radiotherapist assured me that there was no underlying purpose to this - it's the first time my treatment hasn't been left to right - merely that this was the way they decided to go.

And finally, I got some good news. As long as I don't suffer from skin irritation (the one side-effect I seem to have avoided), I can start swimming as soon as treatment finishes. If I experience any skin problems then, I should stop swimming for about a week before trying again. This makes me feel that the end is finally in sight.

Four more sessions... and counting...