Double Dose Today

I walk through these doors everyday at 3PM to get ready for my 3:15 appointment. Today was my 13th radiation treatment. I have 20 more to go. The last 5 are called a boost that target only the area where my tumor was located, so I think that for those I will receive a smaller dose of radiation.




Here is the locker room. I select a gown from the shelf, undress from the waist up, and lock all my things in one of the lockers. Then I sit in the waiting room until they call me on the intercom to tell me that they are ready for me in the treatment room.


Here is the treatment room. I lie down on the bed with the blue pillow under my knees. My head rests on the mold that they made for me during the simulation appointment. The round part of the machine is brought down to about 10 inches away from my body. It zaps me from above for about 12 seconds, then rotates to zap me on my side for another 12 seconds. Once a week they take x-rays using the same machine. Also, once a week I visit Dr. Scroggins to discuss my treatment. I am in the treatment room for about a total of 3 to 5 minutes. It probably takes me longer to undress and dress than it does to receive the radiation.

I had a meltdown on Tuesday night. I was just feeling overwhelmed with having to go to Ochsner daily for radiation. Steve suggested that I use a sick day to regroup. Today I took off from work, but it was not a day off from treatment of the c. I had an Avastin treatment scheduled (chemo drip that lasts 30 minutes), oncologist visit scheduled, and of course my daily radiation treatment scheduled. Afterwards, I treated myself to one of my favorite salads for lunch. The restaurant Refuel makes this great cobb salad that I love. I have not had a chance to eat one since before I started chemotherapy in May. The one day that I was going to eat at Refuel during the holidays it was closed. Today I walked in to an empty restaurant and happily walked out with salad in hand less than 10 minutes later.

Tomorrow I go back to work, but since it is Friday I can look forward to the weekend when I can relax.

Hair Today, More Tomorrow

I have been asked about the state of my hair by many of you. It's growing, of course not as fast as I want it to, but it is growing. I decided that it has grown enough to take a picture. So here goes, my head without scarf or hat for you to see.

Three Down, Thirty More to Go

At least there is no pain from this treatment. I can't believe that I have five weeks more of radiation. Right now it is more of an annoyance than anything else. Today I waited almost 30 minutes for them to call me back to the treatment room, but they said that was unusual and wouldn't happen on a regular basis. I thought that they had forgotten about me. If so, I had no clue what to do. I didn't want to go back to the front desk in a hospital gown and no head covering. The techs told me that I should head down the hall to ask them what was wrong if I sit more than 20 minutes waiting.

Not much else to report. I guess that is a good thing.

First Dose of Radiation

Today I had my first radiation treatment. It really did take just minutes and of course it is painless. However, it is disconcerting to be lying there and knowing that toxic rays are being shot through your body. I know that the machine is set for the treatment to be extremely localized, and I know that recurrence is greatly reduced by this treatment. It is still radiation, and they will be taking x-rays weekly to make sure that they are hitting the correct spot. At the dentist they cover you with a lead apron when x-rays are taken--not in this case.

By the way it has been five days since they gave me the Avastin. So far, so good--I am not experiencing any side effects.

One Down, Nine More to Go

Yesterday, I had my first treatment of Avastin. It took forever. I went to Ochsner at 7:30AM for blood work. Then returned to work. Steve picked me up at school for a 10:45AM appointment with the oncologist and an 11:30AM appointment in the chemotherapy room. I thought that I would be back at school for 12:15. I think that I returned around 1:45PM. There was a lot of waiting though we did get to eat lunch.

The doctor was pleased with my progress. The one glitch was my blood pressure. It is usually in the normal range, but yesterday it was high. The Avastin can raise your pressure, so they did not want to give it to me if my pressure was high. I think that they took my pressure about ten times.

Today I feel good, no ill effects from the Avastin. I looked at the calendar and figured out that my last Avastin treatment will be in the middle of July. Whew! Treating my cancer is the never ending story.

Next week I begin radiation. I will let you know how that goes.

On to the Next Step

I had my visit with Dr. Scroggins this morning. He told me that I am having radiation to prevent recurrance. Without radiation I have a 40% chance that my cancer could come back, with radiation the percentage drops to 5-6%. That is significant. I also had my simulation today. That means that I had a CAT SCAN to give them a picture of the location of my organs. They also made a mold of my upper back. This will be used for them to position me the exact same way for each radiation treatment. I was also tattooed with three purple dots. These are permanent and used to help them secure a more accurate aim with the radiation.

I will go in on Monday of next week for them to verify that all the steps completed today were done correctly. Then next Tuesday I start the treatment. It lasts for 6 and a half weeks Monday through Friday. I forgot to ask them how many treatments there are, but I will do that next week. I think that it will be 33. That is the protocol that I have read on the Internet.

I need to go shopping for pure aloe vera gel and a deodorant stone, and a bra without underwire. I hate having to switch products when I find something that I like. I will have burning and tenderness in the area as a result of the radiation, and I will try to follow their directions for alleviating the discomfort. Though I am not happy about having to give up what I like to use and wear. I like my routines and habits.

Tomorrow, Back to Work

Since my operation on December 10th, I have only worked two half days. I have had almost three and a half weeks off to be at leisure. It is going to be strange to get back into the routine. Except for having to wake up at 5:30AM, I am happy to be part of the work force again.

However, I can say that I did enjoy my time to socialize, exercise, relax, read, surf the net, eat out(and enjoy the food!), not have a million doctor visits, get a pedicure, run errands, play with my dog, work in the garden, etc. There is something to be said for having time to yourself, but I am not yet ready to retire.

I am looking toward radiation treatments to start off the new year. I hope that my energy level will not be affected because I have relished the last six weeks without feeling exhausted and fatigued.

This is my new doctor, and I will him meet tomorrow. Dr. Scroggins is the radiation oncologist that has been assigned to me.

Snow in New Orleans, Time to Sleep

I am late telling this story, but it goes with our card for the new year. The snow fell around 8:30AM on December 11th; the day after my operation. I had a fitful sleep the night before and woke very early. After breakfast and reading the paper, I decided to go back to bed. I had just fallen to sleep when Steve walks in to tell me that it was snowing. I told him that was nice and turned over; I wasn't budging from the comfort of my bed. Steve took the photo below while I slept.

Later that day I was able to read the emails going back and forth at school about all the students and teachers leaving the classrooms to play in the snow. One of the teachers made a trip to Walmart for towels because the students were wet and cold and dripping. It sounded like an exciting day, but I was happy to experience it through cyberspace.