Good with the Bad.

I finished my radiation treatment on Friday, so now I can return to a more normal schedule without my day being bisected by a trip to the treatment center. Next up is an Xgeva shot and visit with the Oncologist on Monday.

The last few days have been booth good and bad. The good is that my back pain has mostly gone. I still feel it now and then, but it's no longer ever present and on my mind. The hip pain has subsided somewhat as well. I'm still getting it, but not as reliably and not every time I get out of bed. The bad is that the hip pain seems to have moved down into my thighs and shind just below the knee. The shin pain seems to be the new ever present with the thigh being the pain du jour that pops up after being too long in one position. The Vicodin helps with it as well as the others, I know only because if I'm late in taking them, it is worse, but the shin pain seems to defy the meds. It is better after taking the medication, but doesn't go away completely. On the bowel front, the good is that the ick has gone and I feel more normal in that regard, however the constipation is back. I've gone back to taking the full double dose of the prescriptioon laxative, but so far it doesn't seem to have mattered much. I guess time will tell on that one.

On the good side, my wife conspired with 3 old friends from Dallas for them to come up to visit me in Maryland for the weekend. That was a nice and completely unexpected surprise. Since moving to Maryland 11 years ago, I really only see these guys over an occasional dinner whenever I'm back in Dallas and it's usually in a group with all of our families. It's nice to get to spend some extended time with just the guys, with the exception of my daughters' ever present interruptions of "the funny men". I took them out to Antietam yesterday to visit the battlefield. It was bloody cold out with the temp in the mid-20s and a seemingly constant wind blowing, but fortunately the driving tour doesn't require one to get out of the car to still take it all in. On the bad side, I didn't feel well most of the day and throughout our excursion. My breakfast, which I had at a local diner where the best that you can say about the food is that it's mediocre, came back up on our way back from Antietam. That put a bit of a downer on the day with the guys. The good news is that I felt a lot better after expunging the breakfast, but the bad news is that I didn't feel up for going out for crabs with them for dinner. No out of towner can come up here without having the crab experience, so my wife gracoiously went with them and it sounds like they had a good time without me. They're coming back to the house today to hang out and watch the Super Bowl. I think we may stay put today. So far, I've woken up feeling pretty good, with no pain or stomach issues. Let's hope this is a good sign for the rest of the day.