Sep 23, 2010

Wah, wah!

May I gripe a little about how my time is used these days? I have so many medical and cancer-related appointments. Radiation Therapy every day, Monday through Friday. Herceptin treatments every three weeks. Blood tests every other week. Surgical follow-up visits. Medical Oncologist appointments, Radiation Oncologist appointments, etc. etc. Now, don't get me wrong, I am so very grateful for and appreciative of all of the treatments and care that I am getting. It's all keeping me alive and healthy and I love it. I'm just getting tired. Seems like I don't have many uninterrupted hours. Hours uninterrupted by a trip to Sinai. It kind of reminds me, a little, of when Olivia was very small. You get small parcels of time when your kids are little. An hour here, two hours there. Then it's time to care for the little angels again. That was a wonderful time and I love Olivia and her brother Alex so, so much that taking care of them was a pleasure. They were (and are) precious and adorable and very, very dear. Not so for cancer. I loathe the cancer. I despise it. If I could I would smack it right in the face. Squash the living daylights out of it. I would love to hook it up to the bumper of my car and drag it up and down York Road until it's a bloody mess. But I can't. So, instead, I offer myself up to the wonderful folks at Sinai to bash the cancer for me. Often.

Sep 19, 2010

Radiation Tx the First

Had my first Radiation Therapy treatment last week. All I have to say is: Ouch! It was hard to have my arms up over my head for one hour and twenty minutes. There were tears, but I held still and we did some good work. The therapists and physicist were working very hard for me. They were very skilled and compassionate. The reason why it took so long is because there is so much set-up and planning involved in the first treatment. Subsequent treatments will be much shorter. Maybe fifteen minutes. Whew! I was grateful once again that my body is strong and my recovery is good. I really thought that I was doing some damage that would hurt later. But, nothing hurt later.

While I was lying there, I decided to write a reminder for my female friends and relatives: Do your monthly self-exam!! Get regular mammograms!! Please! Had I not neglected self exams, because I was too afraid, and put off my last mammogram, because I was 'too busy', I might not have been laying on that cold slab having my arms pulled off. So, do those exams and get that mammo. Guys, remind the women that you love to do these things. Tell them Jane made you do it, if necessary!