DURING.....

So I thought I had hit a wall last time. Little did I know that it was only a speed bump.

Here are a few pictures though. This is the radiation machine. Treatments are generally daily. Will explain that part later. I climb up on the "bed" and lie face down. They move the bed forward and then get me in perfect position by moving me a tad up or down or left or right, usually by just pulling the sheet that is under me.


Then, as you can see in this picture, after I am positioned perfectly, the whole bed raises up and moves forward. That is me, lying on the table. (They have modestly covered me up for my photo shoot!) So I will get a treatment of radiation in this position. It literally takes less than 5 minutes and then they change the position of the machine to get the tumor from a different angle.

It just rolls under me while I stay in the same position. They shoot the radiation beams from this angle, again taking less than 5 minutes. Then they lower the table to it's original position, back it out, and then I scoot down and climb off, returning again in 24 hours to do it all over again. Through this part of the treatment I feel absolutly nothing except how cold it is in that room. I always have a sweatshirt or jacket on under the hospital gown. I'm sure that has nothing to do with the treatment itself - it's just the air conditioning.

At the beginning of this blog I bravely put a "before" picture. Then, I was going to put an "after" picture when things were done. Here is a "during" picture. Not to frighten anyone, but I have seen even worse "during" sites of me in mirrors. Things are progressing though.

I still have enough hair that I can go out in public without worrying about it. I think I am done losing hair now though and it will hopefully thicken up again as new hair grows in. I have finished both of my chemo treatments (2nd one was November 12 - 16) with very very little side effects. I still have the PICC in my arm however. They're just being sure that I won't need any kind of hydration or transfusions before the radiation is over. If so, the PICC is the quickest and most efficient way of administering both.

Originally I was to be done with the radiation on November 25th, the day before Thanksgiving. I had been having daily treatments since October 15th. On the 19th of November (a Thursday)however, I asked my doctor about hospitalization. Skin damage due to radiation was getting very severe. Skin was peeling and seeping and bleeding. Walking was difficult at best, and I began using a wheel chair to get to and from our car and my appointments. Sitting was not a lot better. I found out the true meaning of the word excruciating. I use it to describe what it was like going to the bathroom when the acid from the urine would hit that skin. I couldn't imagine continuing on like this so I asked the doctor about being hospitalized. I imagined being on a constant IV drip for pain while I continued with the treatments (only had five more to go at that point). Instead though, he stopped the treatments for 7 days, and that had two weekends included, so for 11 days I went without radiation so I could heal some. Between all of your prayers and my prayers and the things I learned from reading in the scriptures and the promises of the Atonement I healed enough so that I could begin treatments again on December 2nd. At this writing I only have 2 more treatments to go - Monday the 7th and Tuesday the 8th. Things are going very very well.

I won't go into detail about the pain patches that one wears 24/7, and stronger pain tablets (that one takes in addition to the patches every 4 hours), and salves and ointments and bathroom procedures that often take half an hour. Almost all of that is behind me now though, and as I said, things are going very very well. (If you want details of things I have leanred and discovered to make things a bit more tolerable so that it might posssibly help someone elseI would be glad to share. Give me a call.)

I'll just end this post by saying that we are promised some pretty wonderful things in the scriptures. All we need to do is be aware of them (and of course we become aware of them by reading about them), and then simply ask for thoses blessings.

I have so many things to share. I still need 2-3 naps daily though and can feel a need for one now! Can hardly wait to tell you about Knights Fighting Cancer.

Love and thanks to everyone who has supported me and helped me along this journey.