Day -5 began a bit later than some, since I took an Ambien around 2:00 AM to see if I could avoid some of the tossing and turning that plagues me in the wee hours, especially in the hospital. That worked like a charm, but meant I was a bit bleary-eyed when the nurse came to give me my radiation pre-meds around 6:00. No disgrace in that, but good thing I wasn’t in charge of hanging up the Zofran etc.

The best part of the day was a visit from my brother James, who arrived in Sacramento late yesterday and who will begin taking shots of Neupogen tomorrow in preparation for his stem cell donation on Jan. 11. He’s been amazingly steady and supportive of this crazy process from the word go, and as readers of this blog will imagine, it was a huge boost just to set eyes on him. I could go on and on about how fortunate I am to have such a great guy as my brother, let alone as my life-saving donor, but I don’t want to gush more than is strictly necessary. As a very small token of my limitless appreciation, though, I did use my growing influence around here to talk the crack medical transport team into giving him a ride with us over to the Cancer Center where he was going to pick up his shots and meet with the transplant coordinator.

Finally, maybe I’m not such a loser in the Radiation Oncology team’s eyes after all. This afternoon, they dispensed with the repeated X-ray cross-checks on my positioning inside “the rack” or whatever they call the contraption I have now spent hours in without actually knowing its name. It was straight to the treatment: three zaps and I was done in less than half an hour. My calves barely felt it at all! Last day of radiation is tomorrow: Day -4.

P.S. For those keeping track, yes, the Senacot is working a treat.