Another Curveball

On May 1, I went and got my COVID vaccine shot. It was a nice day here, and I was wearing one of those sun shirts (hoodie, long sleeves). That was a mistake.

I couldn't roll up my sleeve far enough for the injection (left arm), so I just pulled down the neck and she did the injection there.

After a day or so, I noticed that my left arm was quite sore. Unusual for me, as every other vaccine (flu, Covid, shingles, pneumonia) there were no affects at all in the arm.

The arm continued to ache and ache. Then we drove to Prince Rupert/Haida Gwaii and back. It was a tough drive both ways because I couldn't find a position where my arm would stop hurting. I tried everything I could to control the pain but nothing worked - not Tylenol, not Advil, not heat, not cold - nothing.

When we got home (May 22) I made a doctor appointment to have things checked out.

What we think happened is that the Covid shot was too high on the arm, and damaged a nerve. Dr. LeVoi has put me on nerve pain medication (gabapentin - an Epilepsy drug) and I think it's starting to work.

Sigh.

LASER

Last week, we met with the radiation study team at BC Cancer. I've been accepted into the SIMPLIFY study and am being randomized into one of two arms: 

• Arm "A" is a single dose of stereotactic radiation given one time 
• Arm "B" is five doses of stereotactic radiation given over five consecutive days

The amount of radiation in Arm A is the biological equivalent of the same dose received over five days with Arm B (it's not simply five times as much, but has to do with a lot of biology and a lot of math).

The study is to see, long term, what the side effect profile is with both arms.

I got news this morning that I have been randomized, and am being enrolled into Arm A (single dose) of the study. I expect to hear from them soon to go get a calibration CT scan so they can proceed with the single zap.

Note that during the zap, they will concurrently use a CT to adjust and verify in case anything has moved.