Three months removed from brutal radiation and chemo treatments for a squamous cell cancer trapped by a lymph node in my neck, I had a remarkably vivid dream the other night or, perhaps, like the late "Sleeping Prophet" Edgar Cayce, it was more a prophecy.
I saw that in the future, medical science had perfected a pinpoint radiation therapy that precisely targets only a cancerous tumor, while sparing lasting injuries to a patient's head, neck, throat, mouth, tongue, sense of taste, gums, teeth, saliva glands and tender mouth lining.
It was a glorious dream, albeit unrealistic in today's traditional and widely practiced form of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatments supplemented with chemotherapy.
I suppose the dream was fostered in part by my limited knowledge of proton therapy, which uses a pencil-sized beam of protons (rather than traditional radiation's photons) to treat various forms of cancer.
Advocates of proton therapy say it can come very close to achieving the limited peripheral damage I dreamed about.
But because of the enormous costs involved in building proton centers, these treatments aren't nearly as available as the IMRT machines (also expensive) in cancer treatment centers cross the nation.
This was the therapy I received at the highly regarded Claude Parrish Cancer Center here in Harrison.
And just as IMRT therapy was a major breakthrough and improvement years back in limiting radiation's spread to surrounding tissues and organs, my dream took treatment-field restriction to an even more revolutionary level.
The dream centered around this new form of radiation therapy being administered by caring technicians at an unnamed facility where adequate funding and research had enabled many advances in this method.
Bear in mind I've only been on the receiving end of IMRT treatment methods administered by competent and caring doctors and technicians. I'm merely a patient with no medical training (but vivid dreams and plenty of hope).
My dream dealt with today's cancer radiation technology advancing to places only dreamed about. Imagine Captain Kirk steering his Enterprise into places no man has gone before.
There may also have been a bit of facing the reality involved that my saliva, taste buds and other aspects of things in my head, neck and mouth I've relied upon over a lifetime are forever changed during whatever time I have remaining in this world.
I awoke recalling the words of my sympathetic radiology technician who told me during treatments, "this will be the hardest thing you will every go through." She was being honest. It has been.
It must have been such knowledge that triggered my subconscious to become aware of patients in the future who will face the therapy as it now exists and imagine what would be a far less agonizing way to effectively kill one's cancerous tumors using pinpointed radiation.
It was only a dream. But that doesn't stop me from imagining and hoping those to come who are afflicted with cancer can be treated with precisely guided radiation therapy.
Loose pit bull
Daughter Anna was visiting from Memphis the other day when we pulled into the driveway just as an unrestrained pit bull mix weighing about 70 pounds came sprinting through our yard.
He continued running to the neighbor's backyard fence as fenced and restrained dogs for two blocks barked and howled.
Then he crossed the street and moved on into another neighborhood where I heard children playing in the distance.
My immediate thought was the person who allowed this dog to go unrestrained among our homes, children and people should be arrested for that reason, alone, and subjected to a $500 fine.
If their "pet" had attacked anyone or another person's pet while running loose, they should be held legally accountable for such negligence and fined at least another $2,000 plus damages.
As readers know, since horrific events in Jeanetta and Benji's lives over the past two months, I have no patience, zip, zero, nada, for people who choose to have this kind of dog, or any large dog, without controlling its behavior and location.
Jeanetta called Harrison's animal control department with the police department to make them aware of this particular stray and decided not to walk Benji through our neighborhood that afternoon (after all things considered over the past two months). And that's a shame.
You might rightly wonder when ol' Mike will climb off his soapbox and drop this subject (especially if you own a big dog you can't or won't effectively restrain for public safety and your irresponsibility winds up being revealed). The answer: When state and local lawmakers finally act to ensure innocent citizens and their own smaller pets are safe from harm or death while walking public sidewalks and streets and even in their own yards.
This, valued readers, is not too much to ask.
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at [email protected].