Treatment Notes:

– a little warmth during the down-from-above portion

– Um, I’m going to assume it was Betadine, but there was something splashed on the arm of the machine that I could see behind the head of the machine during the down-from-above portion.  I brought it to the attention of one of my guys (RTech) when my treatment was done (it wasn’t anything that was going to touch me, so I didn’t feel the need to stop things in their tracks to have this dealt with, but did want them to know about it before they put another patient on the table), and they were cleaning it up before I’d even covered up enough to leave the room.  🙂

– Oh, and I told Iggy about my conversations last night (See Radiation Therapy Journal – Day 4 – Thursday November 2, 2012).  He thought it was pretty cool that I’d even ask.  And then I reminded him who we were all here for – to which he completely and heartily agreed.

Side Effects:

– freakin’ lumberjack appetite!  It could be because my hormones are waxing (I’ll let you know if this changes when they crest), but A) I haven’t been noticing any other PMS yet, and B) it would make sense as a side effect of radiation (another one I’ve not heard of – hello people, can I get some information here please?) since the object of the treatment is to, well, not to put too fine a point on it, to destroy my cells, and since this does not distinguish between healthy cells and cancer cells, they both ‘get it,’ so to speak.  So my body needing more fuel to try to heal the damage being done and rebuild my tissue makes sense to my fairly-medically-aware-but-not-an-actual-doctor brain (I was formerly licensed as an EMT and provided volunteer first-responder emergency care at local parades & festivals for a few years).

– pain at the incision on my nipple – this one is starting to worry me a bit.  While other things are coming and going with my mood, stress hormones level, girlie hormones level, sleeping or not sleeping, etc. – this one’s staying fairly constant.  This was Still tender when I started this new treatment – tender enough to be wearing a nursing pad in my bra t0 1) reduce chafing/make sure the softest possible surface was touching it, and 2) to fill out the cup to match the size of the other one (yeah, before I started any treatment at all, lefty was bigger and now righty’s already been surgically reduced once) – of course now that I’ve started radiation and lefty is swollen from damage…things are again reversed.  I’ll let you know if it gives way.

– fatigue – I was doing mostly okay and completely bonked at about 3:30pm.  I’ve forced myself to actually keep working, but please Goddess, when is 5:30pm already?

Copyright Ridingthebcrollercoaster.com 2012 All Rights Reserved.