Radiation....

Radiation started yesterday. Today was my Mom’s second day of radiation. She will do radiation Monday through Friday for about seven weeks, this means she should be finished about mid July. She will go to radiation every day on her way home from work at 3:30 it only lasts about 15 minutes a day. She said the only thing that bothered her was that she could kind of smell burning while she was laying there. When she got home she said that her sternum felt like it had been burned under the skin. On the right side of her chest where they took out all the muscle all she has left is skin and then bone. Before they radiated that spot they put a cold rag on her chest because they didn’t want the radiation to go too deep. Today they told her to come in early because they have decided to increase her margins so they need to mark her up again. They are now radiating the lymph nodes up her neck and some lymph nodes around her back. My Mom asked them why they decided to radiate more but the Radiologist Doctor doesn’t travel down here from Ogden until Monday. She was told she will meet with the doctor again on Monday. This worries me that they have now decided to radiate more of the lymph nodes. I don’t know if the doctor saw something different yesterday or what‘s going on. They won’t tell us until the Doctor meets with us. This scares me. They also told her not to take any of her vitamins until radiation is over and to put aloe vera on her skin after each radiation treatment. She will now have to put the aloe all the way up her neck and back. My fingers are crossed that the radiation will all go well!

She still has really bad neuropathy and gets sharp pains down her legs occasionally. My Mom explains her neuropathy like when your feet fall asleep and they get tingly before they wake up. This is how her feet and hands feel. She still can’t hold a pen very well unless she takes her nuerontin. If she doesn’t take the nuerontin she goes crazy because she can’t pick anything up or feel her feet well enough to walk. She trips over a lot of things and has tripped a few times going down the couple of stairs we have going into the living room. She doesn’t get hurt though! We kind of laugh after it happens. Then after we laugh she gets frustrated. I think that people think that once you are finished with chemo all the side effects go away and you are ok now. That isn’t the case. Usually the worst part of the chemo is after you are finished because then you have all eight treatments in your body. I think my Mom gets frustrated too because sometimes people think she is fine now and can do what she could do before her treatments. She is starting to feel better though, this is  a good thing. She will probably start feeling fatigued before too long. The Dr. told us about a week after her first radiation treatment is when she will start feeling the fatigue. They also told her today that since they are doing more radiation she will have more side effects, more fatigue and burn. :(

Some of our family friends, Joy and Pat, came to visit us for the weekend. My Mom really enjoyed there visit, she didn’t want them to leave! All of our family lives in Oklahoma and we haven’t had any visitors since my Mom’s diagnosis. We all had a good weekend and enjoyed the company!

Overall my Mom is doing well! She is getting better and things are starting to feel a little bit more normal again. Her hair is still prickly, it’s trying to grow back in. My Mom is excited for this, every day she asks if it looks longer. She has gotten really good at wearing the scarves over her head, she is really creative with them. She also has the cutest hats! She got the cutest Marilyn Monroe wig at the cancer center the other day. They had a make-up class and got lots of free make-up and two wigs. She looks dang cute in them! I keep telling her she needs to wear the Marilyn Monroe one. She can totally pull of any wig she wants to!

Once again thank you for all of the prayers! Yes, they are working, keep them coming!



P.S. Feel free to comment. I never know if anyone reads this so if you comment it keeps me motivated.