Treatment day 29

I am happy to say that today was a comparatively boring day compared with the last 30 days. After the results of the MRI, I felt an almost immediate release of stress that I had buried intentionally from the time of the MRI diagnosis in San Diego now some 6 weeks ago. I suddenly felt very tired and slept fairly well last night especially for me. I woke up in the middle of the night with Jake sleeping next to me and watched him sleep for a moment reflecting on what was tantamount to reaching the top of a mountain. I realize we may have more mountains to climb and this could be only a rest stop. I am hopeful that we are now headed downhill for home and this will soon become a distant memory. Either way, I will attempt to rest for whatever the next journey entails while actually enjoying this rest time. Jake is sitting on the bed playing some kind of rap music I have never heard before. He seems to be more awake than the past month and I am certain he feels some sense of relief and welcome rest. In many ways, I feel like we are back 3 years before when I was programming at my desk and he was sitting across at the other desk doing just what he is doing now. The only difference is that his guitar is not perched on his lap between him and the desk and he is not stopping every minute to play a guitar riff. We will hope for this in time. Either way it is nice to see him off of chemo and more alive.
Jake began his second half of treatment today. The procedure will be modified somewhat in this second half where the main idea is to be doubly certain that none of the tumor or potential "seeds" have been missed. This is done by taking 1/2 of the 288 guns and focusing them on the center of the tumors while taking the other half and focusing more toward the outer areas of the tumors. After 14 days, the guns that were aimed at the core will be placed on the outside and the guns that were on the outside will be focused on the inside. the machine is able to treat a 12cm area in the X and Y axis which covers almost all of the area of his brain. This again for me was a major consideration for this treatment.. the delivery mechanism and coverage. In addition, we will soon be receiving a machine that we will take back with us to the US. This machine will electrically stimulate Jakes left hand to cause it to open and close. What has been found is that when a hand motion is carried out, an impulse is sent out by the brain. When the hand moves, there is a return signal sent back to the brain. By stimulating the hand to close electronically, a signal will be sent back to the brain and may cause the brain to find a new pathway to deliver the sending signal and therefore help Jake regain his left side motor activity.