Tuesday 5.6.2008

Radiation Treatment #9

Daniel got up when I did this morning as he went golfing near St. Johns. I went over to the radiation center, changed into the gown, Lisa called me back, got on the table. She and Ron positioned me and the table, and zap, zap, done. Ron let the table down and offered me his arm to get off of the table. Remember today is Doctor Day, he says. Yep, thanks, I said. See you tomorrow...

I went out into the waiting area, wandered around. Mary called my name and led me to Room 1. On the way, we stopped at the scale. Evidently I get weighed there every week, too. 143 1/2 today. She came in and asked me the 20 questions that are on the sheet--and looked at my skin/breast. Is the skin itchy? Painful? Hot flashes? We talked about skin care again, she generally reassured me that I'm doing ok. She went out, and Dr. DeBiose came in.

He reviewed my chart, looked at the questions sheet, looked at my breast and said it was holding up nicely. (I wanted to tell him it was swollen, that's why it looks good. And it's pink, don't you see it??) When I mentioned it was tender all the time, he tells me to take one tablet, or two if you need it, of Advil, twice a day. (Huh? That's not very much, or very often. I ask him why such a low dose.) He tells me that he starts out at lower doses so that the dose can be increased later if needed. Oh. I tell him that Tylenol/acetaminophen works better for me, and I'll use that when I need to. Ok, he says, And you can add the Advil with that, too, for the inflammation. Ok, I said. (I'm thinking he's not really with it today) I tell him Daniel is golfing in St. Johns today. He smiles, and I offered him Daniel's card. (They had talked last week of getting together for a game, and Daniel didn't have a card with him.) We were done; he wrote a couple more things on my chart, and we were done. See you next week....

Great. I got dressed and went home. It was about 9:40 when I got home. I checked my planner--the therapy appointment is Thursday and Friday.

I was tired, but not ready to lay down yet, so I tried to catch up with some communication. That done, I laid down and slept for about 45 minutes.

I woke up hungry, and had something to eat. Then, I wanted to go get groceries, and I wanted to go out for a jog. I decided to go outdoors first.

I went out, and jogged the whole loop, approximately 2 miles. WooHoo!! It was hard, but I wanted to be able to tell you that I did. I came in, cooled off, showered, and as I was getting dressed, Daniel called and was on his way home.

He said he'd go to the store with me. I finished getting myself ready--he was home in a jiffy. We went to Meijer--I went without anything on my head, just my new hair. I'm not quite ready to do that again. It's ok to go out to the mailbox, to go out exercising, but not to the store yet. Or other public places. We'll see...

We put groceries away, Dan fixed himself something to eat. I was not feeling just right, and not ready to eat, so I didn't. I had a sandwich later on.

It's about 10:30, and I'm ready for bed. The hot flashes are frequent; I hope I can sleep and feel rested in the morning.

Thanks for reading, for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. I love the comments. Hugs.