Jan 8, 2015
It doesn't take long for you to just fall into the 'canser ass kickin' routine...as the days went by, there was a comfort in the predictability of the daily treatments. Ha- even if every appointment time pretty much changed. But it was the same people, the same unit and some of the same warriors too. I saw that young warrior (packed in bags - from my first day) a handful of times.
We decided to bring Emily up for my second treatment since now we knew what to expect, and because she had many questions. We decided NOT to bring Ethan...partly because he was 3 1/2 and we thought a bit young to see it, and partly because we didn't want to risk a 'radioactive incident' due to his mischief...
Emily felt very mature that she got to come up. I was glad we made that decision. The techs were amazing with her - she got to come right into the room and got to take pics lol. She asked a few questions and they answered her fully and respectfully. I think she felt very important....
Then she got to watch me on the camera's and spoke to me via microphone as I received my treatment. To be honest the waiting for it to start still freaked me out a bit but Emily was a good distraction and got me to dig deep so no tears leaked out this time. I was glad now she could envision what my daily treatment consisted of instead of imagining God knows what. There were no needles, no noises, no pain and no blood.
She talked about it for days after.
Originally my New Year's Eve radiation was scheduled at 3:15. We were spending New Years with our friends Dave & Mandi (and all the kids) so I was a little disheartened that it was so late. I mean I guess spending the last day of 2014 at the Tom Baker getting zapped by radiation is a bit disheartening ha ha. But having it so late sucked more because then we might hit traffic and be even later to get home. I don't know if I've mentioned it but I live way in the deep south city limits. It takes 30 minutes on a good day to get to Tom Baker. On bad days it can (and has) taken over an hour. Thankfully they found an opening at 9:30am and changed the time!!
Getting it over with first thing was nice because then I had the rest of the day to get some bean dips ready to bring to Dave's. Mandi is a vegan so it was nice to try out some recipes from the new cookbooks we got over Christmas on someone happy to try them...as opposed to scared to try them! (at least if she was scared it was just cause of my general lack of culinary skills and not because they were vegan!)
It was a great relaxing way to spend New Years Eve. I decided not to drink (at all!) through radiation so I just brought my fake beers which consisted of Amber O'doules. New Year's Day I had no treatment (yay for stats!) so we really enjoyed it. Skating as a family and then off to Phil's aunt's place for supper. My fatigue was still pretty much in check so I was relieved we were able to go.
Knowing they really encouraged people to bring family and friends led me to ask Andrea and my parents if they wanted to come up with me and see what all the fuss was about. They were all interested, which was nice because it meant I had different people to come with me.
I have to say, halfway through, I was still getting nervous before each treatment. Just while I was alone in the room, waiting under the machine for it to start...A psychological thing I guess. I thought maybe by the end of it I'd be all good with it.
My skin itself was not fairing too badly thus far. More dark pink than light pink...looking like I went in the sun for a few hours without sunscreen. But the damn cream!! Here is my current cream stash...
Each one is for a different part of me!! Granted, most of it is once a day, but the Glaxal is 4x a day...It's more time consuming than I thought, although I remember Kelly saying it took alot of time. All the other creams are not just because I'm trying to be high maintenance...trust me, I'd love nothing more than to be regular ol Cindo again...but the treatments have taken their toll. My skin is dry from chemo still...my toenails I still fear might fall off - the nails are brittle and yellowish...my heels crack if I don't cream them - (which used to only be in the summer from wearing sandals...). My arms and legs slough dry skin (that looks like dandruff) if I don't cream every morning as soon as I'm out of the shower. My face is the same...And I have a vitamin E cream for my left side that Kelly got me to help heal the scar tissue so it's less...there?
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And of course the 1 hour "air out" time....If you put your hand on my right chest you can actually feel the heat after radiation. The nurses have assured me though that I am not "radioactive"...a tad disappointing...
However, my friend Liz said now I really am a "hot" Mama! ha ha...I said to another friend "I should go outside on a cold day and see if I steam - then I'd be a "smokin' hot Mama"!!
Anyways, I try to air out when the kids aren't home because they are still sensitive to "my lines"as they call them (which I like much better than "my scars" so from now on that's how I'll be referring to them!) It forces me to take a 1 hour break daily so that's a bonus I guess...
I also don't have any blisters yet...however near my right armpit - like the soft part just below - it's getting quite tender. Kelly told me she got blisters there and so I have been putting extra cream. But I didn't realise part of my actual armpit (lower half) was also getting zapped so I hadn't put any cream on it till the other day...So I'm a little worried that's going to blister...And the itching!! I don't remember anyone telling me it would itch like this...kinda like after a sunburn before you peel - I could scratch all day long and still get no relief. Although the cream does soothe it for a while...but that's more annoying than painful (unless I give a real good scratch with my nails when I'm not thinking...that doesn't feel so nice!)
But overall it's all going OK. I've gone to a few appointments now on my own and I use the drive there and back to sing loudly in the van. Probably a good thing for others on the road these days that it's not summer with open windows...
Oh and you can now find me on Facebook if you want an easier way to follow the blog because its a public page called My Inner Ninja - A Journey Through Triple Negative Breast canser And Beyond.
We decided to bring Emily up for my second treatment since now we knew what to expect, and because she had many questions. We decided NOT to bring Ethan...partly because he was 3 1/2 and we thought a bit young to see it, and partly because we didn't want to risk a 'radioactive incident' due to his mischief...
Emily felt very mature that she got to come up. I was glad we made that decision. The techs were amazing with her - she got to come right into the room and got to take pics lol. She asked a few questions and they answered her fully and respectfully. I think she felt very important....
Originally my New Year's Eve radiation was scheduled at 3:15. We were spending New Years with our friends Dave & Mandi (and all the kids) so I was a little disheartened that it was so late. I mean I guess spending the last day of 2014 at the Tom Baker getting zapped by radiation is a bit disheartening ha ha. But having it so late sucked more because then we might hit traffic and be even later to get home. I don't know if I've mentioned it but I live way in the deep south city limits. It takes 30 minutes on a good day to get to Tom Baker. On bad days it can (and has) taken over an hour. Thankfully they found an opening at 9:30am and changed the time!!
Knowing they really encouraged people to bring family and friends led me to ask Andrea and my parents if they wanted to come up with me and see what all the fuss was about. They were all interested, which was nice because it meant I had different people to come with me.
I have to say, halfway through, I was still getting nervous before each treatment. Just while I was alone in the room, waiting under the machine for it to start...A psychological thing I guess. I thought maybe by the end of it I'd be all good with it.
My skin itself was not fairing too badly thus far. More dark pink than light pink...looking like I went in the sun for a few hours without sunscreen. But the damn cream!! Here is my current cream stash...
However, my friend Liz said now I really am a "hot" Mama! ha ha...I said to another friend "I should go outside on a cold day and see if I steam - then I'd be a "smokin' hot Mama"!!
I also don't have any blisters yet...however near my right armpit - like the soft part just below - it's getting quite tender. Kelly told me she got blisters there and so I have been putting extra cream. But I didn't realise part of my actual armpit (lower half) was also getting zapped so I hadn't put any cream on it till the other day...So I'm a little worried that's going to blister...And the itching!! I don't remember anyone telling me it would itch like this...kinda like after a sunburn before you peel - I could scratch all day long and still get no relief. Although the cream does soothe it for a while...but that's more annoying than painful (unless I give a real good scratch with my nails when I'm not thinking...that doesn't feel so nice!)
But overall it's all going OK. I've gone to a few appointments now on my own and I use the drive there and back to sing loudly in the van. Probably a good thing for others on the road these days that it's not summer with open windows...
Oh and you can now find me on Facebook if you want an easier way to follow the blog because its a public page called My Inner Ninja - A Journey Through Triple Negative Breast canser And Beyond.
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