I'm a little behind on post sorry but I tire easily these days. Last Friday was the last day of my first week. So how did my first week of radiation-chemo go you wonder? It went pretty well. I am tired and I am achey, but thankfully very few other side effects have yet to crop up. Friday's radiation had a bit of a new spin to it. For starters somehow I didn't quite get the latch to click on the changing room door and got walk in on while I stood there in my t-shirt and nothing else. Thankfully it was one of my doctors and another female patient. Now, I normally would be embarrassed by such an incident but after two pregnancies and now rectal cancer....well I just don't have that much modesty or dignity left. Dr. K felt pretty bad, but I told her not to fret, it was bound to happen sooner or later. After that lovely incident I laid down for my scan. Techs told me that they would have to draw on my butt. I am an extremely ticklish person and it took quite a lot of self control not to laugh out load when they started to draw. What I didn't know until after my treatment was done that day, was their drawings were done in permanent marker. Fabulous! It isn't pretty drawings, sorry no butterflies. They just drew lines (they told me the reason, but I wasn't really listening as I was concentrating on not laughing), I look like some character out of TRON. Maddie saw them and asked why I had blue lines all over my behind. I scrambled to come up with an answer for her.
After radiation was done I saw my medical oncologist, she wanted to check in with me and see how I was doing. She had a theory about how certain woman handle therapy. She noticed that women who had really rough pregnancies, morning sickness and the like, tend to do terrible with chemotherapy. Luckily for me I never had morning sickness, at least never threw up! Now that doesn't me that towards the end I won't have more nausea, it just means that I would be less likely to be so nauseous that I would have to be admitted to the hospital. She told me that she has one patient that she has to alter her medication so much because otherwise it puts her over the top and she ends up in the ER and has to be admitted! Yikes! This patient was quite sick during her pregnancies.....interesting.
Friday night, despite my exhaustion I decided to forget about the cancer and go out with some girl friends. Maggie was performing with her improv group downtown and I have never seen an improv show. So I hoped on the train and headed into the city. I should mention that I had to do a pit stop at one of the station because, due to the radiation, I have to go pee way more frequently. I feel like an old lady! Met up with some other friends and headed into the show. It was pretty funny and it allowed me to forget, at least momentarily, all of my troubles. Thank you ladies for the fun evening!
It's Molly again. My name doesn't come up for some reason... Anyway, sorry if I'm clogging your page, but I wanted to let you know again that my mom was much sicker from chemo in 1991 than in 2010. I think she did 5 months in 1991, and then she was going to go through it for 6 months in 2010. She tolerated it so well that she did 8 months. Her tumor markers didn't really drop off any more after the 8th month, and now she takes oral drugs. It must be like what you are doing. She has a port in her chest for the intravenous stuff, and she'll have the port the rest of her life. That being said, though, I think she's tolerating her oral meds pretty well, and even the intravenous chemo didn't make her throw up, so I've got my fingers crossed for you. She was tired, though. That'll be something that probably will stick, but hopefully that isn't too bad. Of course, you have two little ones, so being tired I am sure is far from ideal. Thankfully you have a great husband, so you can get some rest in! Hopefully you are getting used to the meds and will adjust some over these next few weeks. Another thing that I always thought was interesting about my mom was this... Whenever she was diagnosed with breast cancer initially, she said she had been soooo tired for a few months beforehand, but she didn't really know why. Anyway, of course the chemo made her tired, but she said that after the cancer was removed and before the chemo was given to help prevent the spread, she felt amazing. Of course, she didn't feel great since she had just had surgery, but she said the tiredness really subsided. I'm thinking and hoping that maybe after you have your surgery, you will actually feel a lot better, too. Of course, I know you'll have the second round of chemo that will be longer, but you might actually notice a big improvement physically once the cancer is gone. Just a hope. It happened for my mom... Maybe it happens for other people, too. Also, my aunt had colon cancer in her 30s, and she is now in her late 60s. Not once did she have a recurrence. She hasn't had any cancer of any form since. AND... That was over 30 years ago when treatments were not as good as they are today. You just got to get through this year. One day at a time... AND... Be thinking about all of the awesome things you are going to do in 2013! It's great you're keeping this blog because next year at this time you'll be able to read and reflect on what you went through exactly one year ago, and you can do something really awesome each day to celebrate being in a different place. :) I have lots of faith in you! It's just going to be very bumpy road in the meantime, but you will get where you want to get. Just keep thinking about all of the stuff you want to do when you are better. That's what my ma always did, and even now... She's stage 4, and we don't really know how much time we have... BUT... She wants to live to see the cicadas come again... They came in 2004, and they'll come again in 2021... Do you know what those are? They were soooo annoying! BUT... Amazing. My ma has made it a point to live to 2021 to see the cicadas. She just saw her wig lady on Friday, and the wig lady said she believed my ma would get to live to see the cicadas. :) Positivity goes a long way. We should get together for sure when my ma is in town again. I think she would be a great inspiration for you. Even though she had a different kind of cancer, she was young when she was diagnosed, and she might be able to help answer questions or even just listen. I'll be checking your blog to see how you are, and please don't hesitate to let me know if there is anything I can do for you or your family. xoxox
ReplyDeleteHi, Melissa! Sorry... One more comment from Molly. I wanted to let you know that my ma is visiting this weekend, and I was asking her about her situation, and she wanted me to tell you that she actually wasn't that that tired from the chemo this second-go-around. She never missed a single day from work other than the days she had her appointments, so hopefully that helps some. I think she had fatigue, but it wasn't like the time when you had seen her. She wasn't sleeping all the time this recent time. I think chemo is a lot better than it used to be, so I hope even if you are tired some, that you won't be too, too tired. My ma also said one of the things that got her through it the first time besides wanting to be around my sister and me was that she bought a pair of fancy roller skates that she really wanted to get to use on the boardwalk at the beach. Whenever she was having a good day, she would want to go to the beach and just skate. Hopefully you can come up with something that you really want to do that you feel like you can do, and it will help pass the time as you get through this. Having something special that you want to do that you feel up to doing will probably really help in this process. Anyway, sorry to ramble once again. I'm thinking about you and hoping today will be a sunny, somewhat happy day for you. xoxox
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