Dear Dad, The chemo and radiation is affecting your brain. You keep forgetting things. But not like the normal stuff that I’ve gotten used to you forgetting, you know like when you try to remember the name of a movie director. You say What’s his name? Umm Jason help me out here?
That’s not what worries me now.
Last night we were watching Iron Man and today you don’t remember it. Later we’re watching it again for a second time. When I tell you that we watched this the night before, you shake your head. You look at me like you’re trying to remember and your eyes light up for a second and I think you have it, but then you go back to shaking your head. You don’t have it. The doctors say that this is fairly common in older patients that undergo treatment and also because of the location of the radiation treatments being close to your brain. The tough part is a radiation treatment a day, five days a week with only the weekends off. It is hard getting you to keep going. Yesterday when I said it was time to go, you got quiet and like a child whispered Can we just skip it today?
That’s not what worries me now.
Last night we were watching Iron Man and today you don’t remember it. Later we’re watching it again for a second time. When I tell you that we watched this the night before, you shake your head. You look at me like you’re trying to remember and your eyes light up for a second and I think you have it, but then you go back to shaking your head. You don’t have it. The doctors say that this is fairly common in older patients that undergo treatment and also because of the location of the radiation treatments being close to your brain. The tough part is a radiation treatment a day, five days a week with only the weekends off. It is hard getting you to keep going. Yesterday when I said it was time to go, you got quiet and like a child whispered Can we just skip it today?
On your second chemo you get the drug Cisplatin, a small amount cloistered with liters of IV fluids to help the body deal with the toxicity of the event. The fluids drip all day as we sit in a room full of other cancer patients. Afterwards, I take you home and you want to watch a movie. You want to watch Iron Man because you haven’t seen it yet.
