Hello world, I'm back
Sep. 2nd, 2019 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melliciousHope you all are having a good Labor Day, and that you're not actually having to labor much today. I definitely am not. I'm watching the Astros game and farting around with various online things, and I thought I would come and update now that I'm starting to feel a little more human again.
(As usual lately, possible TMI if you have delicate feelings about medical stuff. But mostly not too much detail necessary, I think.)
I have been having radiation treatments since the middle of July and I am finally, FINALLY all done, yay! I had 30 treatments, and remember that I had already had three treatments before they had to stop because of the damn staph infection, so I've actually had 33 altogether.
Mostly it wasn't too bad but there were several weeks in there where I was just totally exhausted all the time. I worked the whole way through, never missed a day (except for when I was in the hospital before, of course, not much I could do about that one!) I was late a few times but I always got there, during the radiation phase. (Really I would like to have taken at least a few days off but we have been - still are - seriously short-staffed so I just kept on coming in.)
Most of the time they have been treating my whole breast - that's the part that made me so tired, eventually - and then this past week they switched to doing treatments that concentrated on the area where the original tumor was, which helped with the tiredness but caused the bottom side of my breast to look somewhat like raw meat. It wasn't super-painful but it's pretty icky to look at. It's starting to heal already, though. (Think of a bad sunburn with some blistering, that's basically what it is like. Also my whole right breast is weirdly tanned. Back around 1980 it would have been right in fashion, if the rest of me was tanned to match!)
Going in every day (5 days a week, that is) was a pain but they try to get you in and out really fast, and mostly they do. On a good day you're in and out of there in like 30 minutes. Park, check in, go put a gown on, wait for them to call you, go back in the back and lay just so on a table and get protons or whatever beamed at you - the arranging-just-so part usually takes longer than the actual treatment - get dressed again and you're done. Once a week you see the RadOnc doctor but that's usually really quick also. And hey, at least it's on my way to work.
When I was done Friday, one of the techs said, "So, do you want to ring the bell or do you want to leave quietly?" Because apparently it's a tradition, when you finish. People had told me about it, and I said, "I need to ring the bell" - and I did. It's a pretty noisy bell, too. The techs applauded and the waiting room applauded too, when I came out - so I can see why some people might want to leave quietly, but it felt good to make some noise. (I'm pretty sure I said, "I'm free!" to the people in the waiting room.)
(As usual lately, possible TMI if you have delicate feelings about medical stuff. But mostly not too much detail necessary, I think.)
I have been having radiation treatments since the middle of July and I am finally, FINALLY all done, yay! I had 30 treatments, and remember that I had already had three treatments before they had to stop because of the damn staph infection, so I've actually had 33 altogether.
Mostly it wasn't too bad but there were several weeks in there where I was just totally exhausted all the time. I worked the whole way through, never missed a day (except for when I was in the hospital before, of course, not much I could do about that one!) I was late a few times but I always got there, during the radiation phase. (Really I would like to have taken at least a few days off but we have been - still are - seriously short-staffed so I just kept on coming in.)
Most of the time they have been treating my whole breast - that's the part that made me so tired, eventually - and then this past week they switched to doing treatments that concentrated on the area where the original tumor was, which helped with the tiredness but caused the bottom side of my breast to look somewhat like raw meat. It wasn't super-painful but it's pretty icky to look at. It's starting to heal already, though. (Think of a bad sunburn with some blistering, that's basically what it is like. Also my whole right breast is weirdly tanned. Back around 1980 it would have been right in fashion, if the rest of me was tanned to match!)
Going in every day (5 days a week, that is) was a pain but they try to get you in and out really fast, and mostly they do. On a good day you're in and out of there in like 30 minutes. Park, check in, go put a gown on, wait for them to call you, go back in the back and lay just so on a table and get protons or whatever beamed at you - the arranging-just-so part usually takes longer than the actual treatment - get dressed again and you're done. Once a week you see the RadOnc doctor but that's usually really quick also. And hey, at least it's on my way to work.
When I was done Friday, one of the techs said, "So, do you want to ring the bell or do you want to leave quietly?" Because apparently it's a tradition, when you finish. People had told me about it, and I said, "I need to ring the bell" - and I did. It's a pretty noisy bell, too. The techs applauded and the waiting room applauded too, when I came out - so I can see why some people might want to leave quietly, but it felt good to make some noise. (I'm pretty sure I said, "I'm free!" to the people in the waiting room.)
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Date: 2019-09-03 12:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-03 01:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-03 10:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-04 12:24 pm (UTC)I've been thinking about you all summer, hoping you weren't overly tired from the radiation treatments. Onward and upward. Here's hoping you're done with all of that. Also, as the Astros continue to shine, you come to mind. Must be nice to have a winning team. The Cubbies used to say, just wait'll next year! Now, I guess it's the Marlins who say that.
We just dodged a major bullet here in South FL. Dorian has reduced some of the Bahama Islands to rubble. We did all the usual preparations, then got nothing but a few brief showers and a little wind for a couple of hours. Could have been so much worse.
Here's to feeling stronger and getting on with life! 8-D