8 days in

Today was day 8 of treatment and it is beginning to hit Jeff. Today we went out to eat after his appointment and we were just about finished eating when I could see his eyes start to get heavy. He was exhausted and almost seemed to hit a wall. The doctors told us to expect to start seeing symptoms around week 2 and I think we are going to start seeing the radiation take its toll. Last week went well with no major issues. He did a lot of sleeping, but that's nothing new. He was able to meet with the occupational therapist who is going to do a cognitive assessment this week and also refer him to a physical therapist for his leg/hip/limp and a nutritionist to help with what to eat and not to eat during treatment and to keep his energy up. It will be interesting to see the results of his cognitive assessment. I would describe his mental ability as being cloudy (I think I have mentioned it before). You know when you wake up from a deep sleep and someone talks to you but you aren't fully aware of what's going on and later you may or may not remember what the conversation was about. That's kind of how Jeff seems to be a lot of the time. I think it does have a lot to do with being so exhausted all the time and his brain having to work so hard to make the connections that used to be so easy for him. Nonetheless, the OT may have some strategies for Jeff to help make some difficult cognitive tasks easier. We also hope when the tumor is gone, the cloud will be lifted as well. 

In terms of treatment, the original treatment end date given to us, when we were told the treatment start date, was the 27th of September. Last week, when we got his treatment schedule, he was only scheduled until the 16th. The doctors decided they could accomplish what they needed to in less time. Yay! Jeff has 13 days of entire brain radiation and then 9 days of what they call a boost where they will specifically target his tumor with a more potent level of radiation. A scan on the 10th will show the effect the radiation is having on this cancer and give us a good idea of whether or not it is doing what we all hope it will do.