Radiation: A little humor and a praise

 

In July of 2020 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. My PSA was 43 and my prostate was greatly enlarged. The doctor prescribed treatment was Androgen Deprivation Therapy (ADT: to remove testosterone from my system) and radiation. I was sent to Dr. William Bobo at Rock Hill Radiation Therapy Center for 43 radiation treatments, 5 days a week, for 8 weeks. I’ve never been told this, but I’m pretty sure I have received my lifetime limit of radiation. (I was full of anxiety at the thought of this, and I confess, even though that is not me in the photo, I can feel the anxiety once more.)

My treatments were always in the morning. I would park a mile away and walk to the center. They wanted my bladder full for the treatments, so I always barely made it. The walk back was rough - many times I was basically crawling back to my Jeep.

The Humor

Every Tuesday Dr. Bobo would meet with me and ask how I was doing and if I had any questions. One time I did actually have a question, something I’d been pondering.

“How long after each treatment am I radioactive?”

He laughed. “You’re not. It dissipates immediately.”

The Praise

The Radiation Therapy Center took Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving, and switched my treatments to the Saturday and Sunday before Thanksgiving. I went for my treatment Sunday morning and then on to church. As I mentioned, I was often wiped out after a treatment, that morning especially so. Oh, I was feeling bad! We were attending an Anglican Church (ACNA) then, Church of the Resurrection (now called Resurrection Church). They had communion every Sunday. We would walk up front and kneel down to receive the elements. Pastor Pat May was serving the bread, "The Body of Christ, the bread of heaven"; Jean Roach, our deaconess, was serving the cup, "The Blood of Christ, the cup of salvation".

After I drank from the cup, she started to move on to the next person, but stopped and came back to me. She placed her hand on my head and prayed for me. Praise God! I immediately felt better and fairly skipped back to my seat!! We sang a song in closing, and I was practically dancing with joy!!!

The kind of things I think about while I’m painting the living room.