Queen's Day!!!!

To celebrate me reaching the half-way point in my radiotherapy treatment schedule, Queen Beatrix (a.k.a. Queen Beer Tricks) put on a party for me, calling it Queen's Day.

Amsterdam has a population of 700,000 and an EXTRA 600,000 people came along from outside of Amsterdam to join in the celebrations. Here are a few snapshots from the big day...

Bondy trying on some clothes from a second hand sale

A local dog keeping an eye on proceedings

Andy, Kim and Bondy keeping it serious

Bondy, Luke James and Freddie

Sugar, Willows, JC and Matt

Jimmy and Lumpy

Michelle and Maaike

Emily, Renske, Conrad, Vinnie at the Amstelveld

Jake and Bondy

Lumpy and Michelle

Claire and Mikey B

Claire and Bondy

Dave, Susan and Claire

Jenny and Bondy

Bondy, James and Sophie

Freddie and Maaike

Bondy, Luke and Sophie

The Bondy Food Pyramid

Through my unique situation of being part of the radiotherapy patient community as well as the triathlon community, it has been necessary to develop a unique nutritional approach which I would like to unveil:

The Bondy Food Pyramid

Pyramid foundation: Ice Cream
After each radiotherapy treatment, enjoy a Swirl. A Swirl is a large cup of soft serve ice cream, with syrup and toppings of your choice mixed in.

Swirl

The nutritional value of this food is clear. The energy required to bring ice cream up to core body temperature is more than the energy contained in the ice cream itself. Therefore by eating ice cream, you actually lose weight.

Pyramid middle layer: Broodje Harring
A broodje harring, or herring roll in English is a raw herring in a white bread roll with onions and gherkins.

a Broodje Harring

The nutritional value of a broodje harring is also clear. The carbohydrates in the bread provides basic energy building blocks for day-to-day life. For those who would question the nutritional value of raw fish - 127 million Japanese can't be wrong!

Top of the pyramid: Beer
As beer is at the top of the pyramid, it should only be consumed in moderation, but if you have not consumed beer during the week, you must consider it a commitment to your personal health to 'catch-up' on the beer consumption you have missed out on.

On that note, I have officially made it to the halfway point in my radiotherapy treatment, having completed 15 treatment out of the total of 30. This is the same as making it halfway through a 6-pack.

15 treatments down, 15 to go!

Like 2 Beers Down Out of a 6-pack, So Are The Days of My Life

...and then there were four

With 10 out of the total 30 required radiotherapy treatments complete, everything is going well. Once again, to draw the comparison with a six-pack of Tui - it is like having 2 down, 4 to go.

After a 70 km cycle last night, a 5km run today, a 2km swim tomorrow morning, and another 70km cycle tomorrow night, I think it is still safe to say that I am fit as a fiddle!

Hot On The Heels of Lance Armstrong

Just to clarify, being hot on the heels of Lance Armstrong does not mean having any of my private parts removed!

After a full week of radiotherapy, everything is coming along nicely. On Wednesday, I went for a 70km bike ride with some cycling mates, keeping an average speed of 30km/hr.

But, most importantly, if gave me a great excuse to wear Lycra!

Claire with Bondy in cycling costume

...and Then There Were 25

5 treatments completed so far, and 25 to go, 16.7% complete, or perhaps an easier way to think of it is...

Radiotherapy treatments completed to date

...one beer down from a 6-pack.

On Monday mornings, I also have an appointment with the radiologist. He told me before my first radiotherapy treatment that there was no growth seen from the possible piece of remaining tumour in my most recent CT scan (See Radiotherapy Q & A). In his words, this is VERY good news. It is very common to see tumour growth in such a CT scan if the tumour is agressive.

My tumour is clearly sitting there dormant while we nuke it. I'm not sure yet whether to call it Nagasaki or Hiroshima...

3 treatments down, 27 to go...

After already completing 10% of the radiotherapy treatments, things are going very well. The worst day was the first, and that was simply having a strange feeling in my stomach. It was just like eating an omelette made from eggs that were a day or two past their best. Not green smelly eggs with legs of their own, but just a little suspicious.

After the second treatment, I went to the gym for an hour and a half, and after the third, ran for 20 mins. The link below is a summary of my runs so far using a new Nike + iPod thingy that clips to your running shoe and says how far/fast you go. Check the run from 11 April - after my third treatment:

http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/?l=runners,runs,686262129,runID,618730168

Also, the Dalai Lama will be getting a new mate in the hair department. After mentioning it to him, he was stoked. We had a big yarn about it, and now I simply know him as Dazza. I sent him a photo of how my hair used to look back in 1994, just for a laugh...

Bondy in 1994

Dazza thought this was pure comedy...

Dazza's reaction

By Dazza getting a mate in the hair department, I mean I will lose a band of hair from one ear to the other, going via my forehead. One side will lose more than the other, and my eyebrows should be safe, but time will tell.

The good news is, I won't need to shave my forehead any more!!

The Photon Torpedo

Note from Bondy: With no time to add a post to the blog, I have simply taken an excerpt from Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame...

The Enterprise

Captain's log, stardate 9 April, 2008...

Starfleet has informed us of a possible residual tumour presence within the galaxy known as Bondy. We went straight to the galaxy at a speed of warp 9. Our head engineer Scotty did struggle with this, stating quite clearly "Cap'n! I canna meck eet go enne fastarrrr!", but
warp 9 got us there in plenty of time.

The photon torpedo device

We found that in the said galaxy, there was a device that would enable us to launch a photon torpedo at the potential tumour presence. It worked on the Klingons, so it would work on a tumour.

Cloak mechanism

The head constellation of Bondy galaxy was covered with an elaborate cloak mechanism, that included a clearly marked target. Almost too easy...

At my command, The Enterprise launched five photon torpedoes at different angles. Four of them for a duration of less than ten seconds, and one for approximately 25 seconds, and it was as simple as that. I watched to see the path of the torpedoes...

Captain James T Kirk

Upon closer inspection of Bondy, everything seemed in order. Symptoms close in similarity to a very minor hangover were not enough to stop Bondy from playing touch rugby for two hours the night after the treatment.

[End of Captain's log]

Radiotherapy Q & A

Claire and Bondy

My lovely lady Claire and I met with Dr Stalpers my radiologist some time ago, and I sent him an email recently to clear up some questions about radiotherapy:

- What is the treatment called? Radiology? Radiotherapy? Radiation treatment?

The treatment you will receive is radiotherapy, more precisely: high precision conformal external beam radiotherapy. In case you went on googling: we do not give stereotactic radiotherapy (gamma-knife or linac-based SRT) which is only applicable in very small, well demarked, round tumors.

- Are there any dietary supplements that I can take to stimulate brain growth/regeneration?

No, there are no specific dietary needs or prescriptions. Just make sure that you eat a varied meal.

- Can you please (once again) explain the cancer logic? Radiotherapy introduces some risk of cancer, but it is better than the alternatives.

Yes, there is a small risk that radiation causes cancer in the long run (a few % above the normal population risk of 50% !!!), but the risk that regrowth of the atypical meningioma will hit you at short term (within 1-2 years) is much higher.

- After treatment, will I emit residual radiation?

No, you will not be radioactive after radiotherapy (only during the actual treatment).

- I understand it is normal to feel a little nauseous approximately 2 hours after treatment. How long does this nausea usually last for?

Some slight nausea is common, usually after the first few treatment, but is mostly mild, without loss of appetite or vomiting. Younger people experience more nausea than older people.

- Coffee and Alcohol can cause dehydration which in turn causes some swelling of the brain. Does this mean that I should avoid all coffee and alcohol during the treatment period, so that my brain does not move, making it more difficult to 'hit the target'?

Coffee and alcohol: modest amounts are not harmful. It does not make your brain 'move'. Smoking however is harmful!!

- Is the treatment I receive going to be a stream of protons, neutrons or electrons?

We will treat you with high energy photons (average photon energy between 6 and 10 megavolt; for comparison: a light bulb emits photons of 0.220 megavolt).

- Is there residual radiation that can collect in foreign objects such as clothing or jewellery?

No, nothing will become radioactive. Photons above ~20 megavolt may cause nuclear pair-formation that makes metals radioactive; the energy we use is well below that energy-level.

- I have had a CT scan on Monday to map the exact target, but not a further MRI scan since the one earlier in the year. Is the MRI scan recent enough to use to map the target location?

I had planned both a CT scan and an MRI on the same day, but for whatever reason the MRI-appointment went wrong. No problem: the CT-scan was quite sufficient to determin the target and did not show any sign of tumor regrowth.
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It was great to have a little light shed on the treatment that will be starting on Wednesday 9 April, but nobody was as happy about it as our cat Steve:

Steve (and Bondy's foot in some good ol' Norsewear socks)

The English Breakfast

The English Breakfast is the only English language breakfast radio show in Amsterdam, and it has a new Thursday morning presenter...you guessed it...me! It is live from 7-9am (6-8am GMT) on 99.4FM, and for those not in Amsterdam, you can listen live and also to past shows on http://www.englishbreakfast.nl/

In triathlon progress, my maximum cyling heartrate is 171 bpm, and my fat % is 8.8%. During the course of the day today, I cycled 45.5km, avg speed of 27.4km/hr, max speed 40.6km/hr and it took 1:40.

Even with all that training, it is just as important to stop, talk to people you have never met, and reflect upon life...



Great to see that the fundraising site for the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand has broken the NZD1000 mark, and the site for the Hersenstichting is closing fast!

The race is on!