Clearly, I’m not being squeamish about the details. And neither do I want to, uh, bombard my readers with micro-reports on the functioning of my lower gastrointestinal tract. So I’m going to describe the expected side-effects of my treatment and allow y’all to read between the lines in the future.

I’m told that most patients have little problem, except for some fatigue, with the first two weeks of treatment, start feeling the effects more and more during the second two weeks, and the final two weeks are so unpleasant that it probably takes a couple more weeks after that to begin to feel close to normal. My treatment regimen was originally planned to be six weeks long, and I am nearing the end of the second week.

Effects from radiation in this area are probably stronger than effects of chemo. My medical oncologist needs to see results of a blood test next week to determine whether the effect on my white cells and platelets allows for another week of chemo, starting on 2/19.

Effects of radiation are described as diarrhea and “feeling like you are sitting on a red-hot poker.” So today, my bowel movements are beginning to be a little unpleasant, and the feeling down where the butt meets the seat is like sitting on a pleasantly warm poker. There are medications and nutritional regimes to deal with these side-effects and we are getting prepared.

When we were in Oaxaca a year ago, Judy got turista. The cook (who was also the owner, I believe) of the excellent hotel we stayed at, Casa Oaxaca, cooked up a kind of white, liquidy, faintly almond-tasting (horchata?), cinnamon-spiced rice gruel that really seemed to work. Does anybody have a recipe? If not, we’re going to email Casa Oaxaca.

So after today, when I say I’m feeling more or less discomfort from side-effects, you’ll know what I am referring to — unless I specify something other than the effects I’ve described herein.