After four radiation treatments, I am not feeling any significant side effects. Of course, this is just the beginning of my radiation therapy, and I have 29 more to go, but I am hoping I have very mild, if any, reaction to radiation. The radiation tech said I probably wouldn't notice much until about two weeks of treatments, but I figure there is nothing wrong with hoping I fare very well.
When I am lying down on the therapy table, I can see my reflection in the glass of the machine where the radiation beam shoots out. That sounds a bit dramatic that it shoots out when I can't feel it doing anything at the time, but that's what I imagine it doing-shooting any rogue, but lonely cancer cells that might have the nerve to still be hanging around. I'm on the table for about twenty minutes, and honestly, I feel like a Salvado Dali clock poured out on the table the way gravity has its way with my body. All I can say is that it's not a pretty sight, and I'm glad it's just me and the radiation tech.
I get four shots from the radiation beam with one lasting about 45 seconds, two lasting about 25 seconds and one lasting about 5 seconds. One shoots through my back to the lymph nodes above my right breast (this is a drainage area for the breast and a potential area where cancer cells could be); another shoots from the front of my chest to the same area; another shoots into the tumor site in my breast; and the other shoots from the side of my body to hit the axillary lymph node area. I try not to think about how much radiation I'm getting from treatment and how it can cause cancer down the road, because my main goal is to just make it down the road right now!
One thing I have noticed so far as to side effects is that when I push or pull things or lift heavier things since radiation, my right arm feels tighter and more affected than it has before. I don't have any swelling, but there is some tightness in the upper, back side of my arm. I've had some tightness ever since surgery in September, but I can tell a bit of a difference. Everything I read says to keep on doing, but to pace yourself and not do too much. I've done a lot this weekend, but it's been good, and I don't feel too tired or that my arm is bothered too much.
Today we had a great lunch with our friends, Mark and Janie, and later, other heart friends, Steve & Gaylee Overstreet, stopped by on their way home to Arkadelphia after visiting their boys in Memphis, and we had dessert together and just fellowshipped. Nothing like picking up where you've left off with good friends. We all worshipped together years ago at Richwoods Church, and I feel so blessed by the friendships we made and have carried on over the years. These folks are prayer warriors, too, and I'm so thankful for them and the prayers I know they have prayed for me.
Well, tomorrow is more radiation, and I will try to give an update about once a week unless something happens to where I need specific prayer. Please continue to pray that I don't suffer from lymphedema and that I don't suffer from too much fatigue due to radiation. My hair is growing back nicely, and it may actually be as long or even longer than what Jamie Lee Curtis wears. I'm just not comfortable wearing it that short. She's skinny, too, and skinny people get away with a whole lot more fashion freedom than "healthy" people do, darn it! But wigs and hats are hot, and I am getting a little impatient. I may have to go to my hair stylist and have her do some kind of short, punky hairstyle. We'll see.
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