Friday 5.9.08

Radiation Treatment #12

I get up this morning and go over to the radiation center. Change into the gown. I can hear their voices down the hall in "the room", and it sounds like they are finishing up, so I just hang out near the hallway in the waiting area. Sure enough, Lisa and the previous patient are coming towards me. She motions me to come on back.

Lisa and Adrienne position me and the table, and walk out. The machine moves into place, and zap. It moves again, and zap. Done. Lisa comes back out and lets the table down, and offers me an arm to sit up, and get off of the table. Have a good weekend, see you Monday. I put my street clothes back on. Melissa was at the desk and I told her Happy Nurse's Week. We chatted a minute, and I went on my way to see Ike/Eeka at 0930.

I got to the therapy place and checked in. Ike came out for me about 0935, and took me to room 3 today. In this room, the tan padded table was diagonally positioned. She had me undress, and left the room for a few minutes ("to pee", she said). When she came back in, she had her camera, and we did the photo thing of the cord. She got what I thought was a great pic that showed the dimpling near the elbow as well as the cord in the armpit. She had me lay on the table, and announced "that when we are done, we will see none of that". Good. I hope she can fix it. And she proceeded to knead/massage the areas that she did yesterday. And at the end of an hour, my arm felt better again. It was 1040. I appreciated that I got my full time, even though we started late. She told me to bring my calendar next visit, because we will need to add more days. Ok. I was dressed, and she walked me out into the treatment area. She hugged me. See you next week.

I got home about 1115. I got out of the car, and as I was coming up the stairs, I felt really lousy. Nauseated, queasy. I must have looked bad, because Daniel looked at me and asked if I was ok. I told him not really, all of a sudden I was queasy-nauseated. He told me to take a Nexium. No, I said, don't take a pill at the first sign of something. I'll wait. He told me to take a pill, that's what they're for. Geesh, it's just nausea, I can deal with it. I think I must have still be looking bad, because he was hovering. Hm. I told him I had to get ready for work, and went off into the bedroom. The nausea lessened, but didn't really go away the rest of the afternoon. And I didn't take a pill.

I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and glass of milk, fixed a travel cup with hot coffee, and headed to Jackson. I parked in the lot, no shuttle, and walked over to the hospital. I clocked in by 1300.

I got report from Joyce, who has been kind enough to cover these mornings for me, and I took over. Thank you, Joyce. We had a good team again, and the afternoon went well. I was even able to get a bite for dinner.

I clocked out at 1900--a rare event for me, as I generally stay until they are done with report. One of the girls had gotten her report and was out on the floor, so we left.

I drove home, stopped at Meijer to pick up cards and gift cards, that I had forgotten about until today, and got home by 8:45.

Daniel had just gotten home, too, from is golf event. We settled around for the evening, visited some, he checked his email, then went off to bed. I wrote here, and I'll be on my way soon.

The nausea is there, faintly. I don't know if it's because the lymph fluid has been moved around, or because of the cumulative effect of the radiation. My breast is definitely sore, especially in the wound bed and the breast incision. I took a couple of tylenol and a couple of motrin on the way home (not really, I took acetaminophen and ibuprofen). The fullness under my arm was making itself known, too.

I'm glad to have the weekend off from the radiation, to let that breast settle down. I plan to take photos again tomorrow, and will post them on the kathyjeanpics site. Last week's are there; be aware, they are bare-breast pictures.

Saturday is a wedding in Grand Blanc, and Sunday is no plans. I'm looking forward to both days.

Thank you for reading, for taking the time to pray for us, to join us on this journey. Hugs.