Day 4

One day a week during radiation will always be doctor day. Today was such a day. My sister Karen was my volunteer driver.

Since it was see the doctor day naturally today was the first day they were running behind schedule in radiation. Plus also my pal Bruce deserted me for treatment room two but he was still very friendly which was nice. The new guy was cool too. Anyway somebody from the doctor's office came looking for me but Karen was able to say I was in treatment and would get to them as soon as possible. When she told me I thought wow! Somebody came all the way downstairs and across the whole building to get me? (That there is called foreshadowing folks). They must be in a hurry!

After treatment we rushed out and were going to head straight up to the next floor where I've always seen Dr Kobeleva without checking in at main registration. Luckily my good girl surfaced and I did try to check in. Turns out once you're in treatment you see the doctor in the same area as the radiation takes place not on the floor above. So we rushed back there just as if we actually had a clue what we were doing!

It's hard being hospital directionally challenged. In our defense, there were no coloured lines on the floor or wall AT ALL!

Also in the TMI category the toilet refused to self flush for me and the person before me but I don't take any responsibility for that. My bladder has to be full every day for this jazz so they need to get right on that or put up a sign for the secret flush lever code.

So I finally got to meet my nurse Jean. She's super nice and I like her. She left and just as Dr Kobeleva came in the room Karen had to leave cause our parking time was up. Dr K smiled nicely and shook my hand. Then she said: "My nurse tells me you have some dgjjugds?"

Dr Kobeleva is very very Russian. I am normally very good at understanding people with accents. Why just yesterday I held a complete conversation with a German lady about her son's cat. The cat's name is Toddy or Toddles but you see it didn't matter one bit yesterday so I smiled and nodded and repeated words that I could understand. Today was different. It mattered very very much to me that I understand what Dr K was asking me. Because yes it was a question and it required a response of some kind.

I burned through two polite "pardons" and always got "You have some gdsfhncf?"

Gerkins? I wanted to ask but I doubted pickles were on tap conversationally and had no recollection of any sandwich enhancement related talk with nurse Jean.

I was heading towards begging for a paraphrase when it hit me. "Wuestions." Her nurse told her I have some questions! Yes! Yes! I have some questions! Right here on my little recipe file card that I'm clutching damply.

Questions!

Things went better from there. She continued to talk to me like I was a fully functioning adult! And I relaxed into her accent and we were fine.

There was much talk of sitz baths and creams and how raw I'm going to get. It's already time to stop using toilet paper before it gets sore. She said she is sorry but she thinks radiation to the vulva is the worst kind there is but then she caught herself and said that neck might be equally bad. Note to self: Sunblock on neck at all times.

She said she is sorry and I told her I have a lot to live for so it's worth it to me. [So far anyway]

I think I finally understand why the bolus is not placed exactly where the tumor was. She even drew me a little diagram. (It's important to use different media with the learning challenged) Turns out radiation only hits your outer skin at about 30 percent strength so if they need to go full bore to the skin they place the bolus as a fake layer of skin so that when it hits the actual skin it will be at full strength and more radiationy. Shut up it's a word look it up. (Scrambles to add radiationy to Wikipedia)

That's why they don't need to place it over the actual tumor area because thank God, my ahem, thicker legs act as a bolus for that area hence a less embarrassing treatment time. That's the good news. The bad news is that the tops of my legs are going to hurt pretty bad too. Oh well. There's always pirates grog and ice cream if I need it!

Blanket statement

Today I did absolutely nothing except back up my iPod and update to iOS6. Trust me that takes all afternoon!

Henry dropped by with some stuff for me and asked if this blanket that was probably left in their car on Broannie day is mine. I said no but my feet are cold!

So if you belong to it let me know. I may return it. Okay will.

Harrison would be happy because he hates it. Will only climb on my lap if I move it.

If I move it to one side he jumps on up and stalks it. I know it looks like its the iPod charger wire he's after but trust me he's at home with that.

Earlier today when he walked by I moved my toe under the blanket and he literally - no exaggeration - jumped two feet straight into the air.

Who knew fall could be so exciting?

Pretty calm now on his blanket free personally owned piece of real-estate also known as the middle of my bed.

Back to the radiation world tomorrow. Have an appointment with Dr Kobeleva the radiation oncologist too.

Fallish

Nice quiet radiation free day(that I know of).

Harry and I took our regular walk to his fence.

I thought this first picture was pretty good for the iPod. The rest except for the last one are the Canon.

Fall is in the air. I love that.

Some flowers are still going strong.

Some not so much.

Wonder if this squirrel has a bit of skunk in the old family tree?

I've been on the look out for this little family. One of the reasons I usually take my big camera on our walks.

Haven't seen them since Canada day but I'm told they all look the same now, are still hanging around and sometimes head on down the street to the graveyard.

Must be camera shy!

G'night.

Day 3

Today went well again. I have to say the treatment is a lot less emotionally invasive than I was expecting (Besides the whole shooting rays deep into your body and going over and over). I have to pull my pants down under a sheet and have the bolus placed where a bikini triangle would be but I had thought it would be down where the tumor was so no stirrups and no changing into a gown and that is the best part! The fact that my skin is going to become raw isn't so neat but hey some people have to have internal radiation and you don't even want to go there in your imagination.

I thought I was feeling pretty tired today but then I realized I hadn't taken any pain meds this morning so it was probably just that.

My sister Anne was my gracious driver again today.

Took a really bad picture so I'll use some filters and pretend it's the effect I was going for!!

Amy at the Cancer society was very nice and I have rides set up starting next wed for two weeks. They said they can't always guarantee it but will try to give 24 hrs notice if they can't. I
might have to ride along with someone else sometimes and have lots of time to kill so I'm going to splurge on buying wifi at the hospital for the month. That way I could text drivers too.

It was such a nice day that I took Harry out twice. We took this picture of the one and only orange flower in Bea's flower bed and hung around the porch looking all cool and bipedal.

The best thing that happened today was something I just heard about. Today was a pd day so Emily was out riding her bike and Whiskers jumped up into her lap. She set him down and he did it again so she set him in her little white basket and off they rode happily down the sidewalk! The boy loves car rides so why not bikes! Karen's going to try to get a picture but it already exists happily in my brain.

Day 2

Today I tried to register for volunteer drivers with the cancer society. I was transferred to 3 people but none of them were Amy who is apparently the key person to speak to initially. I was headed out the door so I didn't leave a message when I finally got to her voice mail. I wasn't too worried because the phone message said they take calls till 6pm.

So, off for day two! This is my niece Annette - my driver for the day.

Annette is around 35 which I only mention because when she was looking at phones at the mall today the chap behind the counter (who was older than her) told her that the phone she was looking at would be great for taking pictures of her children OR grandchildren! Either way it doesn't work. She doesn't look old enough to be a grandmother and I guarantee no phone in a store today is going to be be viable by the time Ava and Olivia have kids! You're fortunate if apple products stay current for nine months!

Anyway Annette took me to see my family doctor and her new Italian shoes - the women who emailed me from Rome to see if I was okay this summer, and then we went to pick up the girls.

How can you not smile when you see those faces?

We killed some time at Walmart. Ava and I were a matched set!

I was early for my appointment and they took me early. It went quickly, they placed what I am going to call my bolero jacket quickly and I ended up leaving 3 minutes after my appointment start time!

Do you like my footwear?

It was warm enough to sit outside to wait for my ride. Annette had taken the kids to play at Victoria park for half an hour but Olivia said they should get back to me because I'd be wanting to take their pictures.

Couldn't be more right! Olivia came in to play with Harry for a minute then she gave me a hug. An extra big hug because she said she was going to give part of it to Ava in the van. Sweet and sweet!

It was 5 pm so I tried the cancer society again and got a message that they stop answering the phones at 4 pm. (unless you have a donation burning a hole in your heart in which case here's a 800 number) Okay. Tomorrow is another day. They sound nice but a little scattered.

I still feel okay. A bit tired but that might just be from all the waiting for this to get going over the past months. I can tell there's going to be a disturbance in the bowel force sometime but initially anyway that'll be a relief. Ha! Maybe I'll have to have a TMI warning before paragraphs like this!

When the radiation person said "See you tomorrow" it kind of came home to me - oh yeah this isn't a test that I go away and wait for the results, I have to do it again tomorrow and Monday and rinse and repeat.

Day 1

Started the day pretty nervous which Mr Cuddles picked up on right away and he stuck to me like a friendly little Yoda burr.

My friend Grace picked me up and we headed to my ice cream store for a pre radiation celebration. We were greeted by the back yard Sir Rustalot.

and sadly a locked door!

Undaunted we journeyed on.

We were good and early for the actual appointment and they took us in early and gave me this:

It's my appointments for the next 25 week days. With the goal to get to here:

October 24th is the day to get to. I can do that.

The radiologist guy, (I don't know his title or last name but my friend Gail who popped into my appointment ((Yay!)) called him Bruce so I'm going with that) took me into a "quiet room" and explained what was going to happen. He is super nice, accepted the information that it was International Talk Like a Pirate day with aplomb and is someone like my new knee surgeon who I felt an immediate confidence in.

Among other things he said flat out "We're going to hurt you." He explained that there will be a bolus and I heard bolero and my mind went to why are they giving me a short but stylish jacket?

Sadly a radiation bolus is a kind of fake skin that is used either to protect the skin OR in my case: "removes the skin-sparing effect of a megavoltage x-ray beam" so that the radiation will go directly to the skin. That beside the tiredness and bladder and bowel affects will be the worst because the skin in the perineum will break down for sure because the bolus directs the rays there.

I don't really think of it as them hurting me though, more that they're hurting the cancer.

He explained that the effects will probably happen gradually and I may feel okay for a few weeks but they'll probably last several weeks after the treatment ends too.

Then it was time to head into the treatment room.

Kind of makes me happy that a quilter's guild like the one Mom used to be part of has decorated the joint. There's a different quilt pattern for each treatment room.

Best thing about the machine is that it has a pirate option in it's intercom translation program! I hope to test it out in the future.

It took the longest to cut up the bolus - it looked like bubble wrap to me. I didn't really notice the quilt themes till on my way out (you'll be relieved to know I was alone when I took those pictures and not snapping away madly with people around) but while four really smart talented women were standing over me figuring out how to cut and place the bolus I was totally reminded of sitting under a quilt as a child and half listening to smart talented women figuring out the next technical step in the quilt. There was a lot of math used in both processes! Happy to leave it to the pros.

That's what took the longest, after today I should be in and out in half an hour.

The radiation itself doesn't hurt at all during treatment. The machine moves around you for a few minutes then it's done.

Bruce, Dr? Bruce said that I can still go swimming for a while and my pirate team was happy to hear that!

That's Pirate Emily's spa kit in her hand and before swimming my toes my toes got a make over!

We had a super fun bonus swim and now I'm off to bed. I know what to expect now and that helps a lot.