1 week down, 2 to go.

I haven’t really experienced any side effects, and it’s possible that I won’t as I’m getting a fairly small dose compared to some forms of cancer.

One side effect that I’ve been told to possibly expect is difficult or painful swallowing. Radiation damages internal organs in the same way that a sunburn damages your skin. So you can think of it as a sunburn on your internal organs =) In my case the organ most likely to be effected is my esophagus.

It supposedly starts with a feeling like something is stuck, like you have a piece of food, or peanut butter, or an ice cube stuck in you esophagus but you can’t get it to swallow down and clear all the way. I actually started feeling that way after my first treatment, but it had to have been psychosomatic since there is no way it would happen that fast. It went away after a day or so.

But now (just this evening) I think it might be happening for real… I don’t know, it’s hard to tell. Maybe I’m just tired after a long day.

I’ve been working on another high school play lately, and they open on Thursday, so there have been some long evenings at rehearsal this week and last. I love it though! It’s like I told Christine 2 weekends ago when I was inside a dark theater for 8 hours on what was the nicest day of the year: there is no place I would rather be!