Radiation Has Begun

Radiation: 6 weeks/5 days per week/30 sessions!

I am very happy to report that I've been to my radiation appointment twice now and it is very easy. The whole appointment takes about 10 minutes, the ladies who work with me are sweet tempered and explain my treatment clearly, it's painless, and I find it's a good opportunity for me to pray for some specific people as a good distraction to what's happening. Not that I'm nervous, but I use the time to be mindful of some special people and situations that I can just focus on prayer instead of being zapped.

I asked the technologist how long I can expect before  the predicted fatigue and skin irritation starts. She said that in 1-2 weeks I'll be noticing the fatigue and my skin will start getting more red in 3-4 weeks. She also said that by the time I'm at my 6 weeks with them, I will be MORE THAN READY to be done with them!

I really had no idea what would happen during radiation, so I took some pictures. This is what I look at while lying on the bed as the radiation beams are at work! It's a ceiling screen and there are 4 of them. They have lights behind it to illuminate the room. Very nice touch UC!

And these are the technologists that take such great care of me. I'm still learning their names, but next to me is Jenny, then Stephanie. I'll have  to work on remembering the other's name tomorrow.

So basically, I change into a stylish hospital gown, lie down on this bed, position my arms and head in the blue custom formed pillow and they take a few images to make sure I'm lined up accurately.

Some places actually tattoo patient's skin to make sure the machine is lined up, but they marked me with colored markers and put clear stickers over the marks. I have about 9 of these stickers on my abdomen, chest, and sides that I will keep on for  the entire 6 weeks.

Once I'm positioned, the circular head and side panels move to different positions and they line me up with with a green light beam matching the placement of my stickers, confirm placement, and it begins. Basically I take a deep breath in and hold it for 3-13 seconds, depending on which area they radiate. The machine beeps while it's treating me and then it rotates into the next position. I do this about 8-10 times until the ladies come back in the room a few minutes later. And I'm done! That's it.  Super easy. As for getting cancer treatment, it couldn't be easier! Normally I'm actually not covered with a towel for treatment, but you can see how it works here. The tubes near my waist are connected to a sensor that can tell how deeply I breathe when I hold my breath. Since the radiation is on the left side near my heart, I take deep breath holds to force my lungs into pushing my heart away from the area of radiation.

I need to apply moisturizers 3-5 times daily to the affected skin to keep it moist. I'm told it won't prevent the redness and irritation, but will help it. Tomorrow I will go buy an aloe leaf at the grocery store since aloe is great for this. But between that and nightly applying castor oil and daily putting on Ann Post's Whipped Neem Balm, I'm keeping my skin as moist as I know how!

Other than that medical news, I was an organizing beast in my kitchen and pantry this past weekend! Check out these lazy susan shelving units my very talented husband made for me!

Waiting For Radiation While Dreaming Of Quetico

Not much has happened since last week other than a couple lymphedema therapy appointments, which I finished my last one today! Arm is feeling much better and unless it worsens, I don't need to go back.  🙆

I'm dealing with a head cold like most people these days! Thankfully, I have a few more days to recover before I start radiation next week.

I did get a call this morning from Dr. Kharofa's office and my radiation appointments start this upcoming Monday, January 23rd, 2017.  I found out that my very first appointment with the simulator last week to get me set up for radiation cost over $5000, my yearly deductible! Gulp! On the bright side, I can just think of all my other medical appointments for this year as 'free'!

I'm doing a bit of audiobook listening these days. Just finished 'Unbroken' by Laura Hillenbrand. Excellent read.

Also, in all my spare time, I'm neurotically organizing my spice cupboard and cabinets. John has made me custom lazy susans for all my  pantry shelves and a kitchen cabinet for all my storage containers!

Even if I can't practice dental hygiene, I am feeling like I need to do something...getting a little bored. I wish I loved exercise more.

Today, I am very excited about one thing! The 2017 Cincinnati Sport and Travel Show is taking place and we always go there to meet our outfitter for our wilderness camping trip and get a date confirmed and talk 'shop' with the Zups! Since I missed my beloved Quetico trip last year due to stupid cancer, I will have the best 51st birthday this upcoming September 2017. And tonight, I get to immerse myself in dreaming of Wicksteed Lake, Rebecca Falls, and being in the most restorative and romantic place on earth for us...Quetico National Park, Canada!

 Lover's Falls where we never saw another person the entire day!

 My last cup of chai in Quetico 2015

 Roland Lake's secretive 5 star camp site

 The honey hole into Minn Lake and the end of Darkey River

 Serenity at its finest. Absolute silence and tranquility.

 Fog on Rebecca Falls

 Early morning peacefulness at Rebecca Falls

 Rebecca Falls

 Sunset on Wicksteed Lake

 I cannot wait until September 2017!

Prepped And Ready for Radiation, But Forced To Cancel Annual Frozen Butt Hang!

Tuesday I had my simulation appointment with the radiation oncology office. It was pretty straight forward. Strip from waist up 😏 and lay down on CT scanner😴.

Then get comfy with torn rotator cuff by positioning arms above head!😨, don't move for 20 min😬 and mold me in position😱.

Then practice deep breaths...holding each for 20 seconds 😳 after tightly strapping on a breathing monitor across my waist, play dot-to-dot on my tummy and sides with a permanent marker and then put stickers over the marks so they won't come off for the next 7 weeks 😰.

Take a cat scan 😽. Done!
It only took about an hour and was pretty simple. Now I wait for the office to call me once the treatment plan is put in place and then I will get on the schedule. As I mentioned in the past, it will be 6 weeks of radiation, 5 times a week, 10-15 min. for each appt. Supposedly I can expect to be a bit fatigued and will get redness like a sunburn, eventually. The condition of my skin would respond best if it's not already dried out, so I decided to stop my water aerobics class until this is all done. I started putting castor oil on my skin where the treatment will be, just to get it supple before I even start.  I've been told castor oil, aloe, and a few specialty creams are best for radiation.

Unfortunately, I got a bit of a head cold a couple days ago, so the last 2 days I've pretty much sipped tea, read books, and laid low.

We were going to have our annual Frozen Butt Hang (outdoor hammock camping) in our woods this weekend (before I started radiation), but the 40-60 degree weather and rain for the past 3 days caused us to postpone it! Bummer!! I was so looking forward to being in our woods! Last year we had a grand time and did it 3 times! Here are a few pics of our Wonderly Woods Frozen Butt Hang from 2016! If we did it this weekend, we would have to rename it the Thawed Butt Sag instead! I will keep dreaming.....

Radiation Consultation Today...I'm on the home stretch!

I am continuing to see my lymphedema therapist 3 times weekly and noticing a marked improvement in the cording. So between my personal stretching, water aerobics, and physical therapy, we are hoping I will completely recover within a couple weeks!

Today I met my radiation oncologist, Dr. Jordan Khorofa. He is with UC Physicians at Precision Radiotherapy in West Chester. He is a soft spoken, gentle and knowledgeable doctor. My sister, Karen, worked with him a few years ago in Milwaukee, WI and knows him personally. She says he has great patient interaction and bedside manner, in that he answers any and every question I have and takes the time to really explain things, unlike some radiation oncologists.

I will need a total of 6 weeks of radiation, 5 days a week. In fact, he was able to get me in tomorrow for my 'mapping' and treatment planning. This means I will start radiation next week.

He did tell me to expect redness in my skin and informed me that I will get several samples of skin moisturizers from castor oil to aloe and everything in between. But he also said that the skin redness does not usually start for 2-3 weeks into treatment. However, fatigue is something I can expect as a common side effect also.

Other than my situation with cancer treatment, my heart is burdened for 2 of my friends who are in cancer treatment or recovering from it. Deb S. had a serious diagnosis of leukemia 2 years ago and was hospitalized for 8 months, had 2 strokes, and continues to have unknown physical symptoms. She landed in the ICU this week and doctors are trying to figure out what is causing her sodium to plummet, but it's serious. Please pray for her and her husband, Trace.

The second friend, is Karen, who I met in the chemo salon. She has her second surgery tomorrow and it will be a long procedure and even longer recovery. While we had the same cancer and treatment plan and even doctors, initially, she will have more radical surgery in the morning and this recovery is very painful and long. Please pray for her too. Here we are on Nov. 7th, 2016 celebrating our final chemotherapy session! Thank goodness those days are over! But for tomorrow, she would really appreciate any prayers! Thank you!

Update after Christmas and New Year's

I'll start with one of the highlights of our holiday...having time with John's grandchildren last Thursday! We thoroughly loved our day with them   where we got to take the girls ice skating for their first time,

continued a little tradition of going to a bookstore and reading their favorite stories.

Then we celebrated Christmas lunch with them at Pies and Pints and took them Christmas shopping!

Such incredibly sweet, loving, joyful bundles these two are! So thankful we got to see them and spend hours with them!! John's grandson, Jack, seemed to love his new trike that Poppi and I got him, too!

With the New Year ringing in, not much has happened medically other than an appointment with the lymphedema therapist, which went more gently than I expected. I still do stretches and home therapy on my arm's cording to continue relieving the tension on that tendon in my left arm caused by the surgery.  And I found a great use for that Whipped Neem Balm that Ann Post generously gave me  back in my bald days. Now instead of rubbing it on my head like a crystal ball, I rub it on my dry skin after swimming and to help facilitate the home therapy exercises I am doing where I stretch my skin. Unfortunately, my lymphedema sleeves have not arrived yet, but thankfully, I don't have lymphedema symptoms yet either.

I did start a class at the Springboro YMCA last week and have been 4 times now! I am certainly the youngest person in the class, but I figured that would be the case given the name of the class alone: Arthritis Water Aerobics! Perhaps it's not the coolest moniker, but it is ideal for my condition. Mary Oberle, my lymphedema therapist, suggested water exercises to prevent lymphedema because of the constant water pressure. And, I admit, I actually like and I think it's helping! Anyone who knows me, knows I pretty much avoid exercise in gyms. Actually, I pretty much avoid exercise, period. But now that I have medical conditions where water exercise would heal my physical pain, I am more apt to doing it.

I also changed my radiation oncologist yesterday from Dr. Huth to Dr. Jordan Kharofa. The only reason is due to ease of driving to appointments. My breast surgeon recommended Dr. Huth as one of the best she knows and my sister, Karen, worked with Dr. Kharofa in Wisconsin and highly recommended him. Fortunately, the doctors both work together for UC and both come very highly recommended, so I selected the one where I won't have to ever drive to downtown Cincinnati but rather I'll only have to drive to West Chester's Precision Radiotherapy office.

Physically there is continued healing from my breast and lymph node surgery as I can now sleep on my left side without much discomfort. Unfortunately, my rotator cuff aching is more noticeable...probably from the water aerobics. So I need to find a balance between gentle stretching and over exertion.

As for New Year's, I had the pleasure of spending it with the Pieniazek family! It was perfect for us both. God knew what Liz and I both needed that evening.

Plus spending time with those adorable kids of hers is like a healing balm and gives me renewed faith that there are intentionally trained, exceedingly respectful, politely obedient children in the world and tremendously courageous, always consistent parents that take that training so seriously that anyone who is fortunate enough to spend a day with them understands the difference. In fact, I've never seen anyone take parenting more seriously in my life. Liz and Jordan far exceeded anything I ever did as a parent and it's like breathing in fresh air to see how she continues to carry on the baton of well-trained children 24/7 even with the loss of Jordan. Seriously, she needs to write a book!

For now, I continue to physically heal and wait to start radiation. My first appointment for a consultation will be Monday, January 9, 2017. Most likely I'll have 6 weeks of treatment. Unfortunately, I'll have to stop water exercising once I begin radiation since water dries out skin and radiation will require me to practically not bathe my affected skin in anything other than castor oil and Miaderm!

Spiritually, there are some new things I have started in 2017 and am finding it really good. Also, we plan on starting to attend church on a regular basis again now that I'm healed up from chemo and surgery! This will be a welcome change to be with our church families again. John and I are reading from a devotional book I got as a gift from Megan Lubbers and my heart continues to pray for the persecuted church and invite others to do the same as I'm going through the FOXE book of Martyrs by Voice of the Martyrs. Also, God has put some specific people on my heart to be praying for so this has been good to be on my knees, literally, for those whom he has put in my life to do so.