Steve,

I agree that it is better than the alternatives. It is strange but each day I have a couple new follicles as my beard tries to grow back. In some ways I feel like a teenager again, checking every day and hoping for my facial hair to grow. Thankfully that is the only way I feel like a teenager again. Those are some years I would never want to re-live, especially 13 to 16 years old. UGH!

By the way Steve, congratulations as you approach your one year anniversary. In some ways I consider the day that I finished treatment as the day I was reborn so it will be more of a birthday rather than an anniversary for me. I plan on celebrating that time by running a marathon (my 5th). How does everyone else choose to commemorate those milestones? I would be interested to know if you choose a private affair or if you will tell everyone you know and celebrate. I do not think there is any right way to proceed. I am just curious.

I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to any replies.

Gary

Well, in my case my last radiation treatment was on the day before my official birthday, so they are pretty much one and the same.

I celebrated by having my first PET/CT scan, taking the disk home, putting it in the laptop and scaring myself half to death by looking at the lit-up spots all over my body!! Holy Hotspots, Batman!

Especially the one that I thought was my prostate, glowing like Chernobyl on a moonless night! (Immediate thoughts of heading on down to the Radiation Center for a series prostate burns started running through my head, so I started counting my blessings, like not getting lost on the way, not needing introductions to the staff, not needing that dang mask, etc.).

A quick consult with an anatomy chart in a book revealed Chernobyl to be my bladder, where the radioactive stuf was deposited after normal processing; further consult with the book and laptop convinced me that at least it wasn't likely that I have a prostate cancer problem because there were no glowing zones on that organ, unlike my brain and other parts.

I must say that it was a worrisome wait for the results of the radiologist's reading of the scans to reveal that all was well!

I think I will endeavor to do something less stressful on Anniversary #2...