As some of you may know I am undergoing treatments for a head and neck cancer at SCL Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge CO near my home, a real blessing. As of this writing I have just completed 5 of 7 weeks of M-F radiation treatments and 1 day a week chemo-therapy. Praise God my prognosis is excellent, my docs telling me that this should be cured and I will never have any issues with it again. I am very blessed in this regard and am very grateful for all the prayers and care from family, (especially my darling angel of a wife Mai), friends and co-workers and so many we never would have believed it. The folks at the treatment center (only 5 minutes away from my home) have been some of the most wonderful caring people you could wish for. The process I must say is actually fascinating about the science of how they deal with this today. The radiation treatments are very detailed in their planning out of how to precisely aim and treat the affected area. Literal pinpoint accuracy to limit damage to the surrounding area is determined by a team including the doctor, and a radiation physicist, so as to hit the cancer cells and destroy them while limiting the co-lateral damage to healthy tissue. The biggest side effect for me thus far has been the damage to my saliva producing glands. While they will heal and return to function, during the treatments the saliva produced is limited and it has turned very thick. Makes it very difficult to eat without a gag reflex. Dry mouth is a constant issue too. Fortunately today they have all kinds of aid for these effects, from mouth rinses to even saliva producing gums to chew. Your appetite all but disappears during this time. I must admit this is no fun. You indeed do get fatigued and need a lot of rest. But, I will prevail! Praise God!
As mentioned above, the folks at my treatment center have been wonderful. And, being the engineer that I am, I had to understand how the process works and take pictures of the systems. I am getting a highly focused precise beam X-ray treatment of the affected area. The machine is a very large heavy unit that pivots around the treatment table while you are held in the precise same position every time by a mask that is form fitted to you before treatments begin.
LOOKS LIKE ME! Can you tell?
My form fitted mask. Note the toggles along the perimeter. This is for fastening the mask down to the treatment table seen in the picture below that will hold you in the precise position needed. They say that some patients take the mask home with them when treatments are done and use them for Halloween. No doubt!
This shows the radiation machine with the table. Your head fits into the holder at the head of the table and the mask fastens down onto that. Then the entire machine rotates around you aiming the beams precisely where needed. All computer controlled of course.
The control room for the radiation treatments. There are 2 of these side by side in this facility.
Yep, that’s me getting the treatment. Good lookin’ guy huh?
During these times I have been resting and watching some cool stuff on Netflix. I was a fan of several shows back in the day that you can see on the internet now. And of course, I have to notice some of the props used in the shows. Check these out!
From the movie “Clear and Present Danger “ here is actor William De Foe using a satellite phone during one of the scenes. Note the “Harris” emblem on the equipment.
During an episode of “Airwolf”
Look above the actors head, a Kenwood TS-520!
These guys were supposedly geologists studying earthquakes. Comm’s back to base?
And from the movie “The Aviator” with Leonardo De Caprio:
Yep, another Zenith Transoceanic, this time the H-500 model which I own!
This is fun seeing these radios as props. Here’s another from the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie “Collateral Damage”
A Yaesu FT-101E? I can’t quite remember. Later in the movie I saw another one too.
Man you can get it all on Amazon. I must admit I want to try one of these sometime.
With all of this going on, I haven’t had too many Hamshack adventures right now, but there will be more in the future. My wife and I are even planning on buying a motorcycle down the “road” and exploring CO together. And yes, ham radio will be going along! Stand by for that!
Don’t forget the Monday Night Broadcast Engineering
IRLP (and Echolink) Hamnet, every MONDAY EVENING
At 7pm Mountain time (9pm Eastern) for radio discussions, both
Broadcast engineering and amateur radio. The first and
3rd Mondays are also SBE NET nights. Details on how to
Join are at http://www.ke0vh.com/net/net.html. I hope
You will be able to join us and share your engineering and
Ham exploits!
73’ & God be with you. See you next month! de KEØVH