Thursday, February 19, 2009

Radiation

I had my first radiation treatment this past Tuesday, February 17th. It was nothing more than getting an x-ray, except that a red light,on the wall, flashes and buzzes while the treatment is being given. This happens twice for about 20-30 seconds. Once from the right side, and once from the left side. Everytime the light goes on, I think, "Go get those buggers!" Then the light goes off and the technicians come in and it's over. It's amazing that it could possibly do anything at all.

After the first treatment I felt normal. I went home and dutifully applied the all-natural aloe (alcohol free) that Theresa suggested I get. It seemed ridiculous, because my skin felt normal, but I figured if I wanted to keep it that way, I'd better listen.

After the 2nd treatment, I was a bit tired--could I already be tired from this? The doctors liken it to a long day spent at the beach. After a day in the sun's rays, you feel fatigued. Such is the case with radiation. The radiation kills good and bad 'cancer' cells. The good regenerate in a 24 hours period of time, where the bad do not regenerate. The body needs rest so it can work hard at getting those good cells up and running again.

Last night I felt a bit of a localized ache. It was similar to how I felt about 2 weeks after surgery. Just a heaviness, but no pain.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Atlantic City Weekend

We had a great weekend in Atlantic City. Joining us were Chris and Kim, Kim and Matt, Rami and Marie, Christina and Andre, Sylvio and Linda, Gary and Pina, and Billy and Joann (new to our group and a lot of fun).

The weekend started out slow, with Dave and I taking 2 1/2 hours just to get off of Long Island! We had left at 4:30 from the high school--left a car for Ali for when she got out of play rehearsal. At 9pm we were at the Tropicana, and by 9:30 we had joined our friends at Carmine's and enjoyed the mega amounts of food that were still left on the table.

We went to the casino after that, and stayed there until about 3:30 in the morning. Dave, Chris, Rami, and Billy sat down at Blackjack and Dave just couldn't go wrong! He would either get a 20 or 21 on each hand--no brainers--no thinking involved. $1000+ later, we went up to bed.

Saturday rolled in and we rolled out of bed around 9ish. Went for a walk on the boardwalk after breakfast and grabbed a sweatshirt at a local shop. We went to the mall pier and were pleased to see that the third floor had a whole beach sand area running along the floor to ceiling windows the whole stretch of the pier. We relaxed a bit and then headed back to find some tylenol for Dave's pounding headache.

Met at the tiki bar in the hotel around 2 and played darts and basketball until we went to Christina and Andre's room for cocktail hours. Dinner that night was at the Palm. Dave and I shared the special--a 5 lb lobster. The best part was when they split the lobster in half and actually took out all the meat for us--how easy can it get???

Dave and I helped donate money back to the Trop on Sunday. Overall, because our rooms and meals were compt. for both nights, I think we came out ahead of the game. It was just nice to get away from everything for a weekend. Now it's back to reality.

Bring it on!

Radiation begins tomorrow at 2:15 pm. It may sound weird, but I'm looking forward to starting this 6 1/2 week course of treatment. I feel as though nothing has been happening to get me better and I have to keep reminding myself that surgery itself was the beginning of my treatment.

Still, I wonder exactly how radiation will affect me. I know it's just supposed to be fatigue and some skin irritation--they don't really tell you how much fatigue, and how much skin irritation. According to my sister-in-law Theresa, radiation was a breeze compared to chemo. I hope that's true--although, if I end up needing chemo, I may not be too happy. I'll sign back on tomorrow and log in how the first treatment went.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Radiation Simulation

Today I went for my radiation simulation. It was painless except for a little pinprick feeling (and burning) when they tatooed a little dot on my chest and on my side under my arm. The technician, Sean, said that actual tattoos hurt less than those little dots. Not sure I want to find out.

The toughest part was staying still with my left arm curved up and out to my left side and placed in a stirrup, for about 45 minutes. Even though my head was placed on top of a wedge, my neck started to ache and my head felt a bit tingly. Not too comfy.

Both doctor and tech used a sharpie marker and drew little dots on various places around my breast. Then a bunch of x-rays from many angles took place, each time either the tech or the doc would come back in and look at a screen and look at the map projected onto my skin. Next, I got a plaster strip placed over my breast until it hardened (not sure what they do with this--maybe use it to make sure everything is lined up just right before the treatments?). Last, these little strips were placed above and below my breast with a wire taped around the incision area and two plastic round dots taped to the center of my chest and the side under the arm area where the tattoos were. I had to then go to get a CT Scan to further assist in the mapping out of my radiation treatment program.

My first treatment will be on Tuesday, February 17th and will continue, Monday-Friday, until Monday, April 6th. Hopefully, that will be it... I'll find out about chemo on March 4th based upon the Oncotype Dx test.