Hi all;

Brief recap: diagnosed in December of 2006 with glomus typannicum; Revised
to Glomus Jugulare in January, 2007; Surgery in December 2007 for removal;
Discovered it was malignant and metastatic during surgery - Removed several
lymph nodes, sections of mastoid bone, sealed right ear canal;

Started 6 weeks of helical/sterotactic radiation via Tomotherapy machine on
March 1st, 2008, finished today, May 7th, 2008.

So far, I've been *extremely* fortunate in that the side effects have been
limited to:

General fatigue;
Taste buds dead;
Burned skin behind the right ear and along the scar line
Limited hair loss in the back of the skull and right jaw line, along the
path of radiation;
Total weight loss: 0.75 KG

All in all, not bad, though they tell me not to plan anything drastic for
the next two weeks as the radiation effects will continue to build up until
then, after which healing will truly start.

I cannot state strongly enough that the people in the Ottawa Oncology
Centre, in the Ottawa General Hospital are some of the nicest, most genuine
human beings in the world. While I dealt with quite a number of radiation
therapists, two of them, Jenn and Kirsten, are two very special human
beings :)

NO MORE RADIATION! WOOHOO!

Follow-up in two months, MRI to establish a base-line in 6 months then
yearly follow ups for the rest of my life (which is reassuring, I thought
they might limit the follow-up for a few years), but I can live with that.

I've got my mask downstairs: Waiting for a paycheque to come in so I can
buy a red maple sapling, which I am going to plant in my mask and then in
the back yard - It's going to be my "New beginning" tree :)

While I'm not leaving alt.support.cancer, I do want to take the opportunity
to express my thanks to everyone in here - You're all a great bunch of
people :)