5 down, 23+ to go and ?? million buggers left

So, I have completed a whole week (Mon to Fri) of radiation treatments and so far so good. I have some redness in my skin - different then the redness before, but my rad onc said that redness was the goal. I'm keeping the area moist and hope to stave off any more skin damage using these ointments they gave me.

My rad onc wanted me to do at least 28 treatments and she said that she might want to do some booster treatments afterward, hence the 23+ to go. One of the techs told me that it's too early to start counting down - I said it wasn't. Keeps the goal in mind, ya know?

I figured that I had 10 million cancer cells (hard to imagine that many) at the beginning. After treatment 1, it was cut by 50% to 5 million, but I figured some cells divided over night, so Day 2 started out with say, 6 million (I thought originally 5.75, but I figure I should pad it some more, just in case). After Day 2, it was down to 3 million. Then after Day 3, I'm guessing there is still 1.75 million. Then, after Day 4, 1 million. Now, there are 600,000. By Monday, it will have had three days to multiple, so using a factor of 20% growth each day (which is how I calculated the ones above), I will have 1.037 million and the cycle starts again.

But maybe it was more like 100 million cancer cells, which means that there are 6 million left and by Monday, it would be back over 10 million.

You get the picture, at any rate. I got to remember that even though it's killing some, the ones that are left are dividing again. Which is why there are so many treatments.

I do believe I have less lymphedema under the right implant. Which means that enough of the cancer cells are dying and allowing the lymph fluid to clear. At least, that's the story I'm telling myself.