Radiation routine and Silk Road Ensemble

Day 4 of 33 treatments. Mostly the appointments are fast - after parking my car with the complimentary valet, I go straight back to radiation bypassing the main waiting room, get a locker for my stuff, change into my Jillie's gown, put my stuff in the locker, and before I sit down they call me in for treatment. I lie back, put my arms up over my head, they do some minor adjustments to line me up on the table using the tattoos, and they throw out a few numbers to make sure the settings are all correct. Then Raphael and Christine step out of the room, the machine moves from one side to the other making a soft buzzing sound, and it's all over in 2 minutes. I get dressed and hit the road.

Mondays I meet with the nurse and Dr. Gasson to check in on any side effects and my overall well being. So far nothing much - just a faint pink color starting to appear. They sent me off with some 100% aloe and aquaphore samples to use in between treatments. Nothing else is allowed except a good washing with unscented Dove bar soap.

Having the weekend off from treatments was nice. Saturday David, Islay bear and I explored Windham up in the Catskills. We stopped at some scenic view spots and took in the glory of the Hudson Valley.

We met up with some of our neighbors and went to Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, on Sunday night to hear the Silk Road Ensemble and Yo-Yo Ma. What a wonderful experience! Talk about expanding one's musical horizons - most of this music has been around since ancient times and they use some ancient instruments as well - the sheng and bawu mouth organ was the most different looking but we also loved the gaita (Galician bagpipes), pipa and conch shell horn - and we got to experience it in this ultra modern setting at Tanglewood.

Many of pieces they do are commissioned works pulling together all these different sounds and genres. One of the quotes from the program really struck me - "we can better address our differences if we appreciate our commonalities." This sentiment applies to just about every situation but the commonality last night was the music - the same sounds heard by people around the world for hundreds of years and we were hearing it right then played by people from around the world. And an art director like Yo-Yo Ma with a vision to bring it all together. Really wonderful!