Radiation Vacation

Well, a vacation of sorts. As part of my radiation treatments, I have been prescribed a "boost"... meaning 8-10 of my radiation treatments will be focused in on one tiny little area instead of the entire breast. This is because while my margins surrounding the tumor were all clear of cancer cells, there was one margin that was a little too close for comfort for my oncologist.

Usually the boost treatments are the last ones you get, but I heard that sometimes they can be inserted into the middle of the regular treatments to give sunburned skin a break. Today during my weekly visit with my radiation oncologist, he took one look at my pink skin and said, "yeah, we'll be starting the boost tomorrow".

So this is good news! My irritated skin could use a break and so could I. Because my body won't be working to repair as much, I should regain some of my energy back as well.

This vacation may not involve a beach or fruity cocktails, but right now it's the next best thing!

"Somebody's got a case of the Mondays"

But not because of TPS reports or working on Saturday. See, Mondays are a bit of a rollercoaster these days. After having Saturdays and Sundays off from my treatment, I always start feeling like myself again come Monday morning. Oh, but Monday afternoon. What a buzz kill! Five pm is just a reminder about all the other 5 pm's I have left.

Since I can't just decide not to go in or take my frustration out on a fax machine while listening to gangster rap (fun as it sounds), I guess I better harness some of that new-found patience I've been working on. At least today is one more day down, and come 5 pm Friday I'll be one whole week down. It will all be over before I know it.

I wonder how it will feel when I'm done. I'm going to have to come up with something really good to do with my 5 o'clocks. Happy hour, anyone?

Long time, no post

Okay, I have a lot of catching up to do.

First, sorry to anyone who has been checking my blog fruitlessly for updates. I have to be honest and say... I've been avoiding you. Not you personally, of course. I've been avoiding this blog, or maybe I've been avoiding cancer. Ultimately this is proving to be very difficult, especially with the 5:00 pm daily reminder at each of my radiation treatments. Obviously I am not doing a very good job of avoiding cancer, because that is probably why I couldn't sleep tonight and why I am up at 5am writing a long overdue blog update.

Here's the cancer cliff notes: I started radiation treatments on March 24th and have been prescribed 33-36 treatments once a day, 5 days a week. Works out to be about 7 weeks. This includes a "boost" at the end, or a set of treatments that are focused in just where the tumor was. Otherwise, the treatments cover a wider area from the middle of my chest over to my armpit and up to my clavicle. I got a cold my first week of treatment and never really stopped feeling tired after it was gone, and this week I started noticing a sunburn and some mild irritation. I am frustrated with not being able to do as much as I want to without getting tired, but really it could be so much worse.

Everyone wants to know what the treatments are like. Truth be known, they are sort of relaxing in a weird way. Once you get used to all the beeping and buzzing, it's actually kind of nice to lay down and do nothing for 2 minutes at the end of your work day. They made a mold of me using some high-tech bean bag (I keep wondering if there is a rep that sells those things, what a cool job to have) and they line me up using some stickers and three tiny tattooed black dots on my belly. And I said I'd never get another tattoo again! You have to lay really still, which was hard at first but I have a few relaxation tricks I've used (thanks for the thermometer tip, Cindy!) and the machine just rotates around and does it's thing. The whole deal is said and done in less than 2 minutes and I don't feel a thing.

Today I will mark my halfway point through the treatments. I am thankful for feeling as well as I do and for all of the supportive words and hugs that I have gotten from you all. I will be done with these treatments before I know it and ready to get back to running and sweaty yoga. Oh, and I am officially back on the blog wagon... stay tuned for more posts!

xoxo...