Finish Line

  

I crossed another finish line on Friday when I finished radiation treatment, but it was not without drama. Let me take you back to my first week in radiation. There was a woman finishing her treatments ahead of me and she was so excited as it was her last treatment and then the technicians come out and say the machine is down and she has to come back on Monday. I said to myself, that would suck to be so excited and then to have to wait a whole weekend. So I kept this in the back of my mind and when everyone around me was getting excited, I just said it ain't over until it is over and wasn't I a smarty in doing so cause there I sat on Friday when the technician came out and said the machine was down. I just laughed and said, "of course it is". However, they were able to squeeze me in at another office an hour later, so I did finish and had the weekend to celebrate! 

Yes, I am still burned, but it is getting better. Every now and then I feel pings of pain and tingling, but nothing horrible. I probably look funny though when I get them cause I make a funny face and grab my boob.

I went to the Lucky Goat soap shop here in town to get little gifts for the technicians. While there I was talking with the owner and master mixer of the soaps, who is a good friend of my friend. She gave me some things to try on the radiation burn. I have been using the goat milk soap daily in the shower and the Mama and baby butter lotion and I gotta say I can feel the difference. My skin feels better and after I put the lotion on I can feel less pain within 10 minutes. Once I am healed better she also gave me some JuJu lotion to help me heal. You all know me, when I find something I like, I tell everyone about it, so get out there and go get some Lucky Goat. Her shop is right behind Doug's Fish Fry. Thanks again Amy for the gift bags & for hooking me up! 

My hair continues to grow pretty steadily, so much so that I had to shave my legs! I looked just like this pin up except I don't need the towel for my hair on the head yet, I had on higher heels, and Matthew McConnaughey was holding my towel. Seriously though, my eyebrows are back and I can see eyelashes. 

I now have more hair on my head than my tanned Dad and about the same as Andy, although my hair is coming in soft and peach fuzzy so it looks like Andy has more hair in this picture. 

here is the cute bald couple now! 

When I got home from radiation on Friday there was this balloon flying in the wind on my front walkway that said, "We Love You" It was a very sweet gesture from my girls to mark the end of radiation. Love it and thanks! Ruby thought it would be a good idea to bring it to the castle and let "cancer" go off of the roof top, so we did.

Here the cancer tried to come back and kick me one more time, but I said no, get out of here and gave it a good punch.

Then off it went, out of my life as quick as it came. Bye Bye Cancer!

So now I have started the Tamoxifen, a daily pill for the next five years, along with my cancer fighting Pro Pack vitamins. Just a spoon full of pills makes the sugar go down.

 My previous three years of cancer free is wiped clean, I start again, aiming for that five year recovery date when I can say I am cancer free. Until then,  I start the post cancer regimen of eating healthy, exercising, getting my rest, going to follow up appointments and living each moment with gratitude & love.

Thank you to all my friends and family for the many cards, gifts, meals, love and support you have given me and my family through all this.(Janet wins the card giving having sent 30 cards since my diagnosis!)

 We could not have gotten through as well as we did without all of you! 

Now stop worrying about me and get on with your lives, I am.

120 Seconds

                               

RADIATION 

        120 seconds is the amount of time I have to do radiation next week to be done with treatment.
I completed the last of the wide radiation coverage today and then my Doc came in and she and the technicians elevated me, spun me around, and drew on me, all while I laid helpless on the table, the spinning part was quite fun as I had never done that on the table before.
        As I said in last blog, the boost is a bit different in that they are isolating the treatment area to my incision which is the most likely site for cells to be hanging out at if they didn't already get them with the surgical removal, chemotherapy, or previous radiations. It also involves a cone shaped attachment onto the machine which gets very close to me, but does not touch me. The other difference is instead of 10-15 mins, it is only 30 seconds, so 5 days of 30 seconds gets me 120 seconds left!

This is 28 days of radiation and what it did to my skin. looks yucky, but there are far worse out there and I luckily got no open areas. It is sore, but I will continue with the creams and it will be better in no time. The blue mark is the boost site, so that area will get a bit worse over the next week.

                                     
                   This is the radiation machine with the cone attachment which will deliver my boost.

HAIR

Can you tell which one is the peach fuzz on my head and which one is the real peach? They look and feel pretty similar right now. It is very exciting to be feeling something on my head again. There are some longer darker hairs in the back according to Ruby which see says are growing very fast. I did alittle research and apparently your hair only grows about a half an inch a month, so this is going to take awhile, but it is exciting all the same.

NEXT STEP

I had my 6 week follow up with the Oncologist. My labs were OK. I am still anemic and my white cells are on the lower range of normal, but that is expected. She said I look good and we talked about the Tamoxifen.  This is a pill I will take once a day for the next five years which also helps decrease the chance of reoccurance. Yes, as with any medication there are side effects, but the benefits of taking it outweigh any of the risks. I am not going to drive myself crazy looking at the side effects, if I get some, I will deal with them, if I don't, lucky me! 

I don't go back again to the ROC for three months! but it is back to radiation on Monday, my last Monday!

My sister found this picture for me and thought it should be included on the blog, so thank  you Sis, here it is! 

Ten days to go!

I had my 23rd radiation treatment today which means I only have 10 more to go. That works out to two more weeks and I will finish on Rex's 14th bday! I am starting to burn, which is expected even with all the applications of lidex and aquaphor cream I have been doing up to this point. Having done some research, alot of people burn alot sooner and alot worse, so while it is becoming uncomfortable, it still could be worse. 

It looks like a sun burn, as you can see, but they say it is more comparable to a chemical burn. It still amazes me they are able to isolate so much where the radiation goes. 

For the five treatments next week they will continue to radiate the larger area they have been doing, getting the surgical site and lymph nodes. The last week they do something called a boost where they isolate the radiation to just the surgical site. Research shows woman with early stage breast cancer, over 40, benefit from this boost in that it reduces the likelihood of reoccurance. As I went for a full 8 treatments with chemotherapy, I felt going for the boost was yet another way to try and prevent having to deal with all this again. Aggressive yes, but I am worth it! 

Yes, fatigue continues as everything is accumulating (surgeries/chemo/radiation) and I have not been good about napping and getting to bed early. I am working on that now as I am getting up much earlier to get the kids off to school. 

One thing I was looking forward to all summer was going to the JasonMraz/Christina Peri concert over Labor Day. Well I have some great friends and one of them got me into the sound check for the show and as you can see here, we also got a meet and greet. Music makes me happy, especially from these two people and they did not disappoint, it was a great show and they were very nice.

I have my 6 week post chemo follow up with Dr. Lemke, the Oncologist, next Monday, I'll let you know how that goes. 

Jason said he would send me some extra LOVE during the concert, so I am sending it on to all of you!