Radiation oncologist

I had an appointment with the radiation oncologist today after my radiation treatment. He said that I am tolerating the treatments well and that my skin looked healthy and wasn't breaking down yet. Breaking down would be blistering and peeling. My skin doesn't hurt and I try to give it the care that it needs.

I lost my second finger nail on the weekend. On monday I stopped in to see one of the nurses about proper nail care. The most important thing is to avoid getting an infection. That means wearing rubber gloves for gardening and doing the dishes. She said it will take many months for the nails to regrow. They are in a very delicate state and I should make sure that they don't get bruised or damaged. She looked at my other nails and said to be prepared for at least 5 more to fall off. I don't know about my toe nails because they have a beautiful shade of pink nail polish on them right now. I think I would rather not see their fate. Sometimes the unkonwn is better than the known.

My training walks are going well. Last week was a total of 19 km with the longest walk being 6 km and this weeks total will be 23 km with the longest walk being 8 km. They will steadily keep increasing as the weeks get closer to August 12. I am still doing my Body Pump work outs at the gym twice a week and will maybe try to do a Power Pacing (bike) class in the near future. I am down 10 pounds but now have leveled off. I think I need to do some different cross training to increase my weight lose.

That all for now.

Love Carolin

15 of 25

Today was my 15th treatment. Things are still going well. My skin is quite pink and I slather on the cream 3 times a day. Scheduling is still going smoothly. Only 10 more to go.

Tonight I lost my first finger nail. It broke off across the middle of the nail. Thankfully I have a very very thin nail growing underneath. No blood and no pain. A little tender to touch. From the looks of my other nails I have a few more to go.

I did go to an interesting course the last 2 Mondays. It was called Life After Breast Cancer. It was put on by 2 female doctors that have extra training in breast cancer. It looked at what to expect when treatment is over. The part of breast cancer that is the scariest now is the chance of recurrence. Each new ache or pain that a cancer patient feels is the chance that it may be a recurrence. 60-80% of recurrences are diagnosed within 3 years of completion of treatment. Risk of recurrence steadily delicnes with each year but never reaches 0.

For me it put recurrence into perspective. A recurrence is not a death sentance. Even people with metastic cancer can live a normal life for many years. We also looked at things like depression, anxiety, drugs and side effects. It was very informative.

So things are going well and I am continuing to read books and learn on how to live a normal life when this is all over. Somehow I think it will never be what was normal to me in the past but I will find a kind of new normal of life after breast cancer.

Have a wonderful weekend.

With love,

Carolin

10 of 25

Today was my 10th radiation treatment. They are going smoothly and on time. The area that they are radiating is starting to look a bit tanned. A pinky tan colour. The doctor has changed my skin care from applying baby powder to applying Glaxal base cream. I need to put it on 3 times a day. It is to keep the area from drying out.

I am also starting to get tired. I have productive mornings and then the afternoons slow down and I am usually ready for bed about the same time we put Jessica to bed. But that is a pretty minor side effect.

All the chemo side effets are gone. My nails are back to normal but I have 3 that are a funny color and I don't know if I will lose them or not. But they don't hurt. My hair is definitley growing back. That makes me happy.

I didn't get any odd changes after getting my Zoladex shot - at least not yet. The Effexor is working well on the hot flashes. I still get a half dozen or so a day but they are not as intense.

That is as things stand. I hope everyone has a really nice weekend. I hope to restore some of my energy levels before next week.

Love Carolin

Sandy goes to radiation therapy

I decided that Carolin must be having a good time at the hospital. Otherwise why would she go every day? Today I got to tag along to see the whole procedure.

As reported Carolin lies on a table that slides under a big, rotating machine. It is as big as a minivan but looks as heavy as a city bus. The room has a bunch of built-in laser beams. To make sure Carolin is lined up exactly right, they match the beams to the felt pen lines on her chest. Then everyone tippy-toes out of the room and an 8 inch door swings shut. To keep her from getting up and stealing all the medical supplies, they have a closed circuit TV showing how things are going. About a minute and a half later they run in, move Carolin about and run back out again. This is repeated three times. When it's all done everyone smiles and you go home. It's pretty anticlimatic.

Carolin asked why she didn't at least get a lead apron like they do at the dentist. The technician said that with the power of this machine the lead apron would need to be 8 inches thick to stop the beam. That might be a little heavy to throw on over your head.

Back on track

Well today I had my 5th radiation treatment. I am now 1/5 done. It is all going smoothly and some how the radiation department is able to keep their schedule on time. The whole treatment time is about 15 minutes. At radiation school I learned that what radiation does is break the DNA chain. It is not selective and breaks the chain of healthy cells and cancer cells. Once the radiation machine is turned off no further cells are broken. The next 24 hours my body needs to get rid of the dead cells and generate new ones. That is what causes a person to get tired.

I also had my Zoladex shot this morning. Finally!! I saw the doctor yesterday and she changed the prescription to the 3.8 mg shot. I had it filled this morning and the nurse gave me the injection after my radiation treatment. So I am good now for the next 28 days.

Rylie and I did 2 - 4.5 km walks this week so far. I need to do a 3 km on Saturday and a 5 km on Sunday.

The weight is starting to come off. I am down 7 pounds. Hurray, hurray!!

Also my arm is better. Sandy bought me a stress ball and I put in my hand and squeeze. This pumping action is supposed to help move the fluid in my arm. The swelling has come down but I keep using the ball and elevating my arm as a precaution. I don't feel like I need to see a massage therapist yet.

That is all there is to report for now. The next couple of weeks involve no doctor appointments but just radiation.

Bye for now.

Love Carolin

Radiation/injection update

Well Friday didn't go quite as expected either. I went to the local pharmacy to pick up my prescription on Friday. To my surprise it was over $1200. This made me wonder if they had filled the prescription correctly. The pharmacist said she would call the doctor to confirm it but that if I took the prescription out of the store I couldn't return it. That wasn't a chance I was going to take. As the doctor didn't call back, I didn't get my injection on Friday either.

Friday's radiation went well. I went to the simulator for about 45 minutes and they re-did my markings. Now I have green and black Jiffy marker on me. Thank goodness they didn't have to make any new tattoos. Then I went to radiation. It was late in the afternoon and they were behind. I waited 45 minutes until it was my turn. The markings all lined up this time. The room where they do radiation is called a vault. The walls are about 8 inches thick. When they are ready to turn the radiation machine on the technicians leave the room. I can hear the door close with a loud bang and then I am left in the room all by myself. You have to wonder how safe it is when the technicians seal themselves off like that. I lay there wondering if I should be closing my eyes for safety. You don't feel anything while radiation is on. The machine just makes a buzzing sound. My skin is a little pink afterwards but no pain.

Monday morning I checked with the pharmacist and she still hadn't heard from my doctor. I went to the Tom Baker for my second radiation treatment. They touched up my green and black markings by adding purple. I am quite a sight. Radiation was on time and went smoothly. Afterwards I had radiation school to learn what to expect.

Then I went to track down a nurse about this Zoladex shot. I explained the situation and was told that my doctor was away sick. Guess she found a place where there were germs. So I hit the Internet. I have found out that I can have a 3.8 mg shot once a month for $450 or a 10.4 mg shot every 3 months for $1200. I also only need the shot to work for 2 months because I have my surgery on June 2. Now I just have to see if the doctor thinks the same. I am stressed about this whole situation because I can just feel my ovaries pumping out estrogen and turning the cancer cells on. I know it is all in my head but that doesn't help me sleep at 3 am.

Saturday Rylie and I did our 6 km walk. It went well although it was windier than expected. We did get it done in 60 minutes.

So that is about all that is new.

Bye for now. Love Carolin

Not going as smoothly as planned

Things haven't gone as smoothly as I had hoped. My Zoldaex shot was supposed to be on Tuesday but the docotor was running so far behind that she said to come back on Thursday before radiation. Then on Thursday the doctor said for us to up pick up the written prescription from the Tom Baker, have it filled at our local drug store, and then come back to the Tom Baker to have the injection given. The drug is rare enough that it had to be ordered, so as of today I am still without the shot. I will try to get it done tomorrow.

Then there is radiation. Last Thursday when I had an appointment with the radiation simulation machine. They use it to do all the marking and tattooing so the real radiation techs know what to zap. So yesterday I went for my first treatment using the actual radiation machine but they couldn't line up those simulation markings so no treatment. So today it's back to the simulator to get re-marked and then try to have the first radiation treatment after that. Another day totally used up accomplishing very little.

On the plus side my hair is growing back. It is slow but I am sure that the fancy, expensive shampoo is having amazing results. Maybe soon I can go without my bandana. I will need to have my hair colored first.

I had a good start back to my walking schedule. I hadn't walked for the last couple of weeks. At first my excuse was that I was feeling bad after chemo and then it was bad weather. But I walked 3.5 km on Tuesday and 4.5 km on Thursday. Saturday I am supposed to walk 6 km. I will have to take the van to meaure out a 6 km trek. Rylie is enjoying this training schedule.

I have also started some drugs to help with the hot flashes. They are supposed to take a month to work. I look forward to the first sleep without a hot flash.

I just received a phone call that I can have my injection at 1:30 this afternoon. Hurray!! Imagine cheering to have a needle. So today my schedule will be 1:30 injection, 2:15 simulator and 3:12 radiation. And I wonder why I don't get anything done at home.

Time to go. Bye for now.

Love Carolin