**** END OF WEEK 5 OF RADIATION (25 out of 30 done) ****

The most dramatic change in week 5 of oral radiation was that radiation fatigue finally hit me. I have been going to bed by 8pm, napping in the afternoon, and waking up feeling tired even after 12 hours of sleep. There has been a huge drop in my energy level between week 4 and week 5. Having said that, I am still able to drive myself to radiation treatment every afternoon, and I sit in my home office working most of the work day.

The other big change is that the redness on my neck (where they are shooting the radiation into me) has gone from a mild, sore, redness to the full on equivalent of a very bad sunburn. I mean ouch! It hurts like I've been sunburnt badly.

Other than that not too much has changed between weeks 4 and 5. I am still only drinking my meals (have not had a solid meal in a few weeks), but I have not lost a lot of weight (under 10 pounds since this entire thing started). I essentially hit a wall every afternoon and just want to sleep, so, I take in the vast majority of my calories in the morning (smoothies packed with greens, fruit, flax seed oil, almond milk, and protein powder) and by 4pm I've lost my appetite and mostly am just thinking about sleeping. Despite a very sore throat, I am still swallowing (liquids only) pretty well - which I am so lucky that I can, because I do not have a feeding tube. I try to guzzle my smoothie in the morning before the afternoon pain and fatigue set in.

It is worth noting that I've had a low-grade fever going on for almost 3 weeks now that none of my doctors can explain, but does not seem to be causing me any issues that I am aware of.

Over all, once I started taking the morphine (see "end of week 4" report), the entire experience has not been that bad - at least not as bad as I thought it would be.

-Mark