The last part (LAST PART!!) of my treatment was daily radiation at the cancer center in the hospital. I went everyday for 2 weeks from 9/22 to 10/5. Radiation was intimidating at first. I go back into a huge room with the machine, take off my shirt and bra, drape a pillow case (yes, a teeny pillow case) over myself and get into the table. The techs move the table around and align me with the green lasers that great a grid on the table. They then leave the room and close a thick heavy door and I'm left alone in that giant room. The machine comes to life and starts by taking an x-ray of my chest left-to-right and top-to-bottom. The radiation arm then starts to move to my left side. It starts radiation and makes a buzzing sound while it's radiating me. It radiates for 10-30 seconds, rotates 15 degrees clockwise, continues radiating in that new positions, and keeps doing that until it's in aiming at my chest from the top of me. It takes less than 10 minutes but it feels like an hour because I'm in this awkward position staring at the most boring set of ceiling tiles. I got over the intimidation factor after about 3 days. Those 2 weeks did fly by!
I actually started going back to work in the office the week before radiation started! It was such a big step and change for me to actually see and interact with people outside of the cancer treatment environment. There was about a month between the end of chemo and going back to work since I was waiting for my blood counts to recover and the fatigue to go away. I was having such bad anxiety about going back to work in that month. I would wake up in the middle of the night worrying about falling behind and not being effective at work.. even though I had been working (albeit at a much lower productivity level) the entire time I was going through chemo. But the anxiety went away as soon as I started going back to the office and getting things done. I left everyday for radiation and came back to work afterwards. I barely had any side effects from radiation - a little fatigue but not enough to make me stay home.
I'm almost 3 weeks out from the end of radiation now and the fatigue has gone away. I don't really remember what not being tired or fatigued really feels like since I had been feeling that since mid-2014, so I think I'm not fatigued.. But we'll see as I continue to get better! I have some minor darkness on my chest where I was radiated. All in all, radiation was nothing compared to chemo.
So treatment is done! I saw both my radiation and medical oncologists this week and they are pleased with the treatment and how I took it. However, I won't have a PET scan scheduled until the middle of November. That's more waiting, ugh. I don't think there's any cancer left in me other than the scar tissue of my mass, but I don't know for sure for another month.
I celebrated my 30th birthday at the end of August. It was a great celebration with my family and really great friends. I still can't do a mile running and I'm wasn't quite cancer-free then but I still celebrated the hell out of my birthday. Life is getting back to normal. My hair is growing like crazy and I keep meaning to get a haircut. It's so nice!
Hopefully, the next time I update, it's to tell you guys that I've beat this shitty thing called cancer :)
Congrats! Congrats! So happy for you!
ReplyDeletePLUS welcome to 30th club! I cannot wait to see you next time.
We go get drink and pho.