Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases;
Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
Psalms 103: 1-5
I finished radiation treatments last Friday, June 27th! Yay!! I cannot even express how happy I am to be finished! On that day I had a great celebration breakfast with a coworker/friend....then had a wonderful surprise lunch with 11 coworkers/friends...and finished off the day having dinner with my family. What a great day!!
In this post I thought I would explain what it was like to get radiation.
First though, many have asked what is next.
I have a several follow-up appointments scheduled. I will go back to the radiation doctor in August just so he can see that the skin is healed up properly. I have an appointment in September with my oncologist at the Siteman Center. At this appointment I will have a CT scan, discuss my progress, and probably decide what I want to do as far as further "treatment". My options are to take a diabetic medicine to lower my blood sugar, take part in a clinical trial case study, both of these, or neither of these. Right now I am leaning towards just the diabetic medicine. This has been something I have been praying about for months. In October I have a follow up appointment with my surgeon. That will be six months since my surgery. After that I will have other follow up appointments with my oncologist. Not sure what else but just praying that this cancer never returns and it will be follow-up appointments only!!!
So what is it like to have radiation?
I had to have 33 radiation treatments. It ended up taking 7 weeks (2 of those were 4 day weeks). Every weekday morning I went to Mt. Vernon. I was the first appointment of the morning so things went pretty quickly. I would change into a gown and then they would have me lay on a "table" and reach my arms over my head to grab some handlebar looking things. (This part hurt just because my range of motion in my arms was limited still from surgery.) I had to turn my head to the right and then just lay there. For the first 6 weeks I was "zapped" (as I called it) 3 times each treatment. Each zap lasted 20 seconds and in between each one the machine would re-position in order to direct the beam to a different area. I couldn't see the beam but I could hear the buzzing and I could see the sign that lit up showing the beam was on. For 2 of the 3 beams they put something on me that covered the area to be affected. It was called a "bolus" and from my understanding it was to manage the radiation so that it didn't penetrate my skin too much. In other words, it's purpose was to keep the treatment localized to the surface of my skin. (That is my interpretation but please don't quote me on it!) There were a few days in there that they did some short zaps with the beam in addition to the 3 main zaps. I don't know why, I just laid there and kept still. For the last week I only got zapped once at each treatment. For the most part, each appointment only took about 10-15 minutes which includes changing to/from the gown. On the Wednesday of each week I would call or actually see the radiation doctor so he could monitor my progress.
The area affected was about a 5 inch by 8 inch rectangular area on the left side of my chest and wrapping around my side directly under my left arm. For the last week (5 treatments) they reduced the area to be treated to about a 2 inch by 6 inch smaller rectangle.
My skin got really pink/red. At about the 4th week it started getting sore and under my arm was a little swollen. I would say the last 3 weeks were the worst. My skin by then was very red and peeling in areas. It was tight and the area under my arm was very painful. Thank goodness for those pain meds! I was also putting a special cream on the area since the day the treatments started.
At my last treatment the doctor wrote a prescription for a new cream to start using to help with the healing process. This cream contains antibiotics and I am amazed at the difference after using it for just a few days! Thank goodness! There is still some soreness and more peeling that will happen but the area looks so much better and feels better too. Tomorrow (July 4th) will be one week since my last treatment. Let the healing process continue!
Once again, I must say a HUGE thank you for the prayers and support! Please keep praying that the healing process continues and that the cancer never comes back! EVER!!
I am blessed beyond measure!
God is SO Good! All the Time!
Have a very safe and happy 4th of July everyone!
