14 to go

Well, it's starting to catch up to me now. My left collar bone area is looking like a catchers mit. It's getting very brown and leathery looking, it itches too. My radiation tech said that it will also start to burn on my back directly behind the collar bone. It's like a bullet exit wound. Radiation has an exit there because it's so thin. My armpit is red too. It doesn't really bother me though.

Oh well, about 3 more weeks and hopefully I'll be done.

~E

13 down 21 to go

I've made it through 2 1/2 weeks pretty unscathed. My chest is starting to itch and get a little more tan. It's dry and scaly so they told me to use aloe and gave me some lotion samples. They have helped quite a bit. Monday I was scratching it so much that I broke it open and started to bleed a little. I thought it was a bug bite but when I went to radiation the next day they said it was from that and not a bite. It's no biggie, just kind of like excema.

I will update again next week after finishing 5 more.

Love,
E

8 radiation treatments down 26 to go

So far it's been uneventful, which is good. No burning and no tiredness. My chest is getting tan from it so I'm hoping it won't burn.

I met with the doctor Wednesday for my weekly checkup and he told me that I was having 34 treatments not 30 or 31. No big deal, just an extra couple of days.

I will update again at the end of next week.

Happy Easter!
Love,E

Radiation has begun

Well, the first day of radiation took about an hour. I got in my shaped pillow that they made for me the first day. Then they moved me around until I was lined up with the beams coming out of the radiation machine. Then they took 3 or 4 pictures of me from the different angles that the radiation beams will be targeting. They showed those to the doctor who confirmed that they marked me in the right places. After it was confirmed, they wrote all over me with red marker. I had lines from my neck down to my ribs and across my chest to under my armpit. There were 4 boxes for the different radiation spots. Then they made a gooey sticky thing 4cm square to go around the tumor spots. This is called boulos. It grabs the radiation and boosts it in that 4 cm spot. This is to make sure that it is zapping the crap out of any little suckers that are left!

They said I should feel fine for a couple of weeks. People don't usually have any burning or tiredness for a little while. They also said since I am Italian, and I don't burn as a rule, that I may escape the nasty burning that some people experience. That would be good.

I had my second zap today. It only took about 15 minutes. They have to position me each time then, the radiation only takes about 7minutes. All in all I was there for about 20 minutes.

Hopefully it will go smoothly and I won't experience any problems. I'll update again at the end of next week after I have 8 under my belt, or should I say shirt!

Love,
E