Just 2 more…

Well I’m in the homestretch to finishing Radiation treatment with just 2 more left. I will be finished Thursday and ? I NEVER need to do it again. I currently look like a teenager whose boyfriend decided to suck away at her neck and make giant hickeys requiring piles of cover-up! BUT, that’s more fun than your skin frying from the inside out. Ugh!

I’ve opted for scarves & high neck shirts (which are hard to find in summer) and sunscreen, of course, to cover the burn made from the radiation to the lymph nodes. My daughters tell me I’m “high fashion” sporting the scarves in summer with a tank top and yoga pants? Ya Jealous, yet?

I’m quite confident many reading this know 1 or more folks that have had radiation treatment for cancer, the question is, do you know what that means or looks like for them? How about I attempt to give you the play-by-play of my M-F daily radiation routine. Well, I’m gonna so you can exit stage left about now if you’re not interested? Okie dokie then, those sticking around are in for the time of your life…I mean, we’re talkin “Best Seller” reading material for your Cancer Awareness & education.

My daily routine consists of an 11:15(ish) arrival at the Dublin Hospital Oncology office. I enter the changing room and pick out my favorite “gown” for that day. Place it on with the tag in the back making sure it opens in front, of course. While I’m 1/2 nakey underneath, I place my belongings in a locker, place the key ring around my pinky finger then sit and wait for them to come and get me. I am able to determine wether or not they’re running on schedule based upon when I see the lady that before me races to the restroom right about the time I take a seat to wait. Apparently the two ladies before me are required to have a FULL bladder when they arrive for treatment daily, therefore they bee-line to the bathroom immediately following treatment. I haven’t asked why, but I think it’s safe to assume they’re not treating breast cancer. I’m quite impressed with their abilities as I for sure would be one unexpected sneeze or cough away from a potential accident on the table ?

When it’s my turn, the tech comes back to get me and I walk back, tell them my name & date of birth, then I get to walk into the room where all the action happens. I both understand and CAN’T STAND the reciting of my name & DOB. They legit have a picture of me up on the screen and are required to confirm it’s me by asking name & DOB EVERY DAMN DAY! I’m considering saying it wrong at least once before I’m done just to see if they’re on their toes and turn me away from entering the chamber of the deep internal tanning bed. All you healthcare workers and fellow patients out there reading this may be chuckling as you have to either ask or answer the question on the daily too AND agree that it’s quite silly. Although, I am the daughter of an identical twin and even as adults they could have tricked a healthcare worker or two if they wanted to do a switch-a-roo for a (potentially) good laugh.

Now that I’ve passed the “who am I & when was I born” test, I walk into the treatment room where I am invited to take one arm out of my gown and lay down on the table. I snuggle into the mold that was made solely for me with my arms above my head and head tilted looking to the right gazing off to view the many other molds hanging like jackets on a clothing rack that belong to the other patients receiving treatment on the daily. Unfortunately, the racks are pretty full.

The lights are glaring into my eyes as if I’m in a movie & about to be interrogated by the Cancer Police. The fine young ladies doing the treatment put me “on my 29”. They shimmy my hips, leg, or whatever is needed to line me up correctly to the red beams of light coming from above that point to the three blue tattoo’d dots (yes, I said tattoo’d). There is one tattoo on my center abs (of steel) and one on each side. You can barely see the BLUE tattoo dots but I still wish they were black to match the rest of my mole/freckles.

tres

And just like that, a star is born and I have my own version of the “big dipper with the addition of the center tattoo combined with my existing moles ⭐️ Ok, I digress, back to “the process”…beams of light come from above and must line up to hit those 3 tats exactly spot on. The also place a bolis over my (newest) scar to draw even more radiation to that zone so we zap as many microcells in that region as possible. Once that is complete the techs leave the room and we’re ready to roll.

Since radiation is on the left side of my body, I do “breath hold” technique which is when you take a deep breath and hold it while they zap ya with radiation. The technical term is deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH). What this means in terms of radiation therapy for breast cancer is that you are moving your heart away from the “danger zone” of radiation. Shifting the heart’s position apparently cuts the amount of radiation to the heart in half (compared to breathing normally).

The joy of breath-hold is…NOTHING! It actually kinda sucks, but with my genetics I’ll do whatever to protect the heart. The process goes something like this:

tech: “ok, when you’re ready, take a deep breath in and hold”

me: ?

tech: “ok, let just a touch of air out”

me: ?

tech: “just a tad more (or less)”

me: ?‍?

tech: right there

me: ?? silent count in my head begins…20 +/- seconds later

tech: “you can breath”

me: ?? PHEW!

I breath normal for a few seconds and proceed to do the above mentioned probably a total of 8-10 times throughout each session, holding breath for each area being treated. I read that there’s a scuba mouthpiece type contraption that can do the breath hold for you if unable to do it ourselves. Thankfully my swim days of later years and pilates of recent have helped me be able to handle the process fairly easily. Thankful for that!!

Since it’s a recurrence we are doing the entire left chest as well as lymph nodes in the neck and under arm area. I’m over the moon happy I have only 2 left as my skin is NOT good on the neck area (aka hickey zone) and the rest is pretty black too. No sunscreen allowed in radiation ☢️ ?

While I’m not supposed to be in the sun this month, I found myself recently attending two events that are IN the sun but I just couldn’t resist. I mean, I’ve gotta live my life AND this blog isn’t named FOMOzone for no reason!

First stop was lollapalooza where the child ended up in a video on Miley Cyrus’ instagram CHECK IT OUT HERE.

While the teens were at Lolla days 1-3, Bridget and I end up strolling chicago and have the best time hopping around from place to place all weekend. We check out the street art, stumble upon the “Mustache Bar Crawl” in Wriglyville, eat great food, end up seeing some amazing comedy at Second City and Zanies, then round out the weekend at a killer Foo Fighters show Sunday night at Lolla in Grant Park. We even through in a round of bowling in the mix. 

Second sun-filled activity was a golf outing out on by the school…first annual kinda thing. I was happy so see I still had my swing and actually crushed a few drives down the gut that helped our scramble-style scoring (especially when the ladies get a big advantage). We didn’t take away any prizes, but fun was had by all!