Radiation Day 14, 15, & 16 – 80% Complete

It was a busy weekend and I’m also now 80% complete with my radiation treatment! Only 4 more sessions left! It’s hard to believe how quickly and not quickly this went. The only real noteworthy thing is that I had to go in on Sunday for my first treatment of this week because they are closed on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. When I went to treatment today, there were a lot of people in the waiting room, which worried me that they were super behind. It turns out that the machine went down around noon on Sunday and it didn’t come back up until noon today. There were 5 people who didn’t get their treatments in yesterday, so I’m not exactly sure what that means for those individuals. I’m so glad my appointment was early in the morning!

As far as symptoms go, I’m really happy to say that I still don’t have any horrible skin symptoms. I am getting drained, but it’s kind of hard to tell if that’s completely from the treatment or just the fact that it has to take a toll to have to go to treatment every single day during the week. It’s just a lot of effort and it’s at least an hour out of my day with additional driving and stuff. At night I’m pretty tired and the fatigue is real! My body also feels really worn out. My muscles in my body feel like I’ve done a lot of really hard workouts even though I’ve really only done my normal exercises.

I’m really feeling good about deciding to pick this special gel, too. With only four treatments left, I don’t have any skin itchiness, it’s barely red or irritated looking, I have no peeling, etc. I will see my doctor tomorrow, so it’ll be interesting to see what he thinks about it. If I remember correctly, I believe that it’s possible my symptoms could “peak” after my treatment finishes. So even though I won’t continue to get treatments, my skin condition could worsen in the days after my treatment before it gets better. I suppose the only good thing is that even if that does happen, I won’t have to build up the courage to go to treatment again knowing it’s only going to get worse.

Busy, busy, busy

I did feel pretty exhausted this weekend, so I didn’t feel like writing a blog post on Friday. Then I only had one “day off” from radiation. Saturday we had gymnastics, a Costco run (San Pellegrino – or “Green Water Bottles” as Maddie refers to them), long bike rides, freezing cold playgrounds and dinner out. We went to this restaurant called Ni Hao in Canton. We’ve only ever eaten takeout from there because they opened either just before or during The Pandemic. Sean has been wanting to go there for dinner and actually eat at the restaurant, so we decided to walk there. It wasn’t the best choice of restaurant for Maddie, but she liked the shrimp and pork fried rice and the buns that came with the Peking Duck.

On Sunday, I went to treatment at 7:40 AM. They were running late because of the patient immediately in front of me. Normally, it wouldn’t have irritated me, but I didn’t eat breakfast thinking that it would be super quick because I’d be one of the first people. Basically, I was pretty hangry. I didn’t get home until close to 9 AM. Sean and Maddie made me cinnamon rolls and eggs, so it wasn’t too shabby. I stopped by Ceremony Coffee Roasters for some lattes on the way home. Ceremony is some of my favorite coffee! Then we had to get some of our usual stuff out of the way by taking Ginny for a chilly walk and stopping at the playground on the way home. Sean got a bike ride in, but I was just too exhausted to ride. We had kielbasa, sauerkraut and green beans for dinner. It was quite delicious and Sean ate A LOT of sauerkraut. I had made two 32-ounce bags and he probably ate a bag!

Finally, today was a somewhat normal work day/school day. Maddie had a Thanksgiving party at school, so I had made Mac’n’cheese for her class. It’s funny, because when you look at the picture of all the kids sitting around their table eating their meals, their plates were so “beige.” The only things they ate were chicken/turkey (light brown), corn (pale yellow), rolls (light brown), and mac’n’cheese (white). There was nothing green, red or orange on their plates! Meanwhile, I got a free turkey at the grocery story from buying too many groceries, so I cooked an 18-pound turkey while Maddie was at school. I made white wine gravy, baked sweet potatoes and green beans. The highlight of our meal was when Maddie tossed up her Barbie’s dog and it fell in the gravy bowl!

We’ve got Thanksgiving to look forward to and I have only four more treatments left! Can’t wait to be done!