Gecko's fundraiser + radiation dry run

On Saturday evening, we went to the LLS fundraiser Bonnie had planned at Gecko's, a restaurant up in Baltimore. We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed seeing some of our old professors and friends from Towson. Initially, Josh and I were at a table all by ourselves, but we ended up inviting one of our professor friends and her new-ish boyfriend to join us. We got an update on all of the frogs Josh left at Towson (sounds like all of them died :-( ), learned the mystery of a xenopus frog who had disappeared when we were students and talked about Japanese horror movies (ok, that one was mostly Josh). We also realized at one point that the bar part of the restaurant was smoky, but nowhere near as smoky as our old apartment. That was pretty pathetic! Anyway, we had a lot of fun and it looked like everyone else was having a good time too. Bonnie did a great job organizing everything!

I had my radiation dry run appointment today. Basically, they took me into the actual treatment room and got everything all set up just like it will be during a real treatment. Instead of shooting me with radiation beams though, they just took some x-rays. My mask is a lot more uncomfortable now that it's all hardened and cool instead of warm and a little pliable. They were having some kind of issue getting all the settings on the machine just right and so I was strapped down for longer than I should have been. I was just getting to the point where I was feeling excessively panicky when they came back in and let me out. Hopefully that will be the last time I've got the mask on for an extended period of time. My biggest issue is just that the position I have to stay in requires me to be a little tensed up and I can't really relax. It's hardest on my face muscles. I did learn that they have an iPod dock, so I can plug in my own iPod with my own music during my treatments, so that will probably help.

They also used India ink and markers to make my tattoo dots darker and add more marks to line me up with the radiation machine. One of the marks is really high up and visible even with a shirt on. I have to come up with some cool explanation for the huge blue dot on my neck for when someone asks me what it is. Also in visual evidence of radiation treatments: I found out today that when I have the mask on, it leaves some pretty spectacular waffle weave imprints on my forehead. It lasted for a really long time too. I should probably come up with a funny explanation for that too. Or just bring a hat.

My port scar is doing amazingly well. I was really sore Thursday night and all day Friday. I took an ice pack to work with me on Friday, but I was still banished from touching any eggs. I spent the day as an official data recorder since my right hand/arm was fine and I couldn't do much harm to a pencil. On Saturday morning I realized that the steri-strips on the incision were coming off since it had been oozing blood right after the surgery and the steri-strips were all covered with dried blood. They came off after my shower and to my surprise, there is absolutely no evidence of the stitches I watched the doctor put in! I know they were dissolvable stitches, but I don't think they could dissolve completely in less than 36 hours. The incision is closed up and healing really well, but it's definitely a mystery! It's still a little sore today, but getting better every day. I've been able to get shirts both on and off all by myself since yesterday, so that's a big improvement.