The Beginning of the End

Well, today I began the radiation treatments. I will have 25 daily treatments (excluding weekends and holidays). The actual radiation treatment will only last about a minute, so I should be in and out of that one. We saw the medical oncologist who will administer the other treatment. We are very pleased with him. He was so helpful and informative...very thorough. He seemed to know our mind and answered most of the questions we already were planning to ask. I will have 6 weeks of this treatment, once a week. Thursday I will have my first IV. It will be the largest dose and will take 2 hours. Each treatment after that will be about half the initial dose and will take 1 hour. This treatment is a monoclonal antibody, not a chemo. It will target only any cancer cells specific to the squamous cell carcinoma. I most likely will get an acne-type rash that can manifest in different areas of my body, not just the face. I'm nervous about that, but the doctor assured me they have a protocol to follow to treat different grades of the rash. He said it is good to have the rash as that shows the treatments are working. So I now start the beginning of the end of this relentless cancer. Thank you for your continued prayers. They are so felt and so appreciated.