Call

Starting Friday Enrique will be alone and radioactive.

He probably won't feel ill until Saturday. The worst should be over by Tuesday. And sometime between Wednesday and Friday I'll be able to come home and rejoin him.

During this period, please give him a call (or two or three) and let him know you are thinking of him. If he isn't feeling well, he might not pick up, but your message will lift his spirits.

Thank you.

Radiation Treament

After being postponed for a month, Enrique's radiation treatment was again postponed, but just for a day. It will be on Friday.

He's nervous. This will be a higher dose than it was last year. But, they are giving him anti-nausea medication this time. (Only because we asked - I'm not sure why they don't just offer it.)

We don't know the time of the radiation treatment yet. It will involve a short trip to the hospital where he'll be given a radioactive pill. Afterwards I'll drop him off at home and take him back home. Then we'll say good bye for a 5-7 days because it will be unsafe for me to be around him.

My mother, with help from my father, have been cooking up a storm. Our refrigerator is stocked with food for him to eat during that time.

Right now he is a on a low-iodine diet which will encourage his body to absorb the radioactive iodine. All the food they (and I) have prepared has had to adhere to this diet.

Back at Work

I haven't been much of a blogger lately.

Enrique went back to work about two weeks ago. The postponement of his radiation treatment created a window where he was well enough to be at his office.

He was nervous the night before his first day back. It reminded me of the first day of school for a kid. But he came home beaming - looking happier than I had seen him in months. He got a lot of support and good wishes. Plus he has found working and being busy satisfying.

That said, there have been days when he has come home exhausted, when I am reminded that he isn't at 100% - however healthy he may look.

Today was his last day at work for a couple of weeks.

Radiation Postponed

Enrique's endocrinologist postponed his radiation treatment by about one month. He wants Enrique to heal more before he undergoes the treatment.

Right now it is scheduled for August 23rd - but last time there were a lot of delays, so it's tough to say for certain.

Enrique will need to be on a low iodine diet for about one week before and after the treatment - to starve any remaining thyroid tissue of iodine. Then we he gets the radioactive iodine, it will be sucked up by cells that are hungry for it.

Among other items, the diet prohibits dairy, seafood and iodized salt. The salt part is the trickiest because it essentially means that everything needs to be homemade. You can't have much meat and you have to avoid many nuts and beans.