Tag Archives: Radiation Oncologist

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Radiation Therapy Journal – Day 7 – Tuesday November 6, 2012

Treatment Notes:

– it’s films day!  Every week or so, they take new films to make sure they’re treating the correct area according to the plan – you know, killing the tissue they mean to be killing.  🙂  So today was a couple minutes longer than usual, and I got to meet someone new (a she, but for ease of language, she’ll just be “one of my guys” going forward) who I guess is interning for a year or so at this facility.

– got the last of my parking validation tickets – thank the Goddess for small favors, right? – Okay, that’s just bitterness, pure and simple.  Yes, it is nice of them to provide parking validation for my radiation treatments, they don’t have to do that. <sigh>  Better?

Social Worker Visit:

– I was told after my treatment that the social worker was looking for me.  So I did my post-treatment ablutions in the restroom off the main lobby waiting room and when I was done, she was there waiting for me.  Thankfully, she asked me if I had a few minutes to talk instead of just launching into whatever she wants to talk to me about.  Unfortunately, after traffic making me late to work, and spending a few extra minutes with one of my guys to receive the balance of my parking validation tickets, signing the paper saying I had received all of them, and waiting ’til he copied the paper that I signed saying I had received them all for me (some call me the “Paper Nazi”), the answer was actually ‘no,’ as I had to get back to work.  She accepted that gracefully (yay!) and said she’d catch up with me tomorrow.  So, tomorrow when I head back to my guys (assuming I get there on time – which is Exactly why I built in time between being there and getting to work – I was On Time to work today!), I’ll let the waiting room receptionist know I have time to see the social worker, so stay tuned for tomorrow’s episode of Radiation Therapy Journal!

Side Effects:

– lightheadedness/dizziness as I’m walking from my car to the elevator in the parking garage at work.  Hm, had a little (and I do mean little – only about 100 calories or so) bite on the way to RTher this morning.  Is it a food thing, or something else.  I also took the anti-nausea meds 30 min before RTher this morning and yesterday (also had lightheadedness yesterday).  Hm, side effect of the meds?  Must look up same online.

– lots of energy today, but it was getting perceived by my mind as anxiety (maybe ‘cuz I was anxious about wanting to get my vote in!).  Why after so many days of fatigue claims am I now having extra energy?  Last night’s acupuncture must have been it.  There is a program of integrative medicine at the Disney Family Cancer Center, including acupuncture, which I’ve been getting on the Mondays of non-support-group weeks (I figure I can do 1 “extra,” as in not-strictly-required-but-still-helpful/recommended thing each week, but not more, so I’m staggering acupuncture and support group).  As Disney participates in many teaching programs with other institutions, including acupuncture, I’ve been getting treatments from students (supervised by someone fully-trained of course) on their 10-week internships.  I really like the student I’m working with now and would love her to stay (being treated by students saves me $15 a treatment), but I’ll just enjoy it while she’s here, and I’m sure the next one will be good too.  So, she worked last night on first, giving me more energy, and second, some pain relief – hence this notation and the next!  🙂

– less pain than before, until about 3:30pm when it started up again, but still less throughout the evening – Yep, the acupuncture again.  Maybe I should ask for this treatment combination again in two weeks.

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Radiation Therapy Journal – Day 6 – Monday November 5, 2012

Treatment Notes:

– a weird cold burning in the lower lateral portion of the breast during the down-from-above portion

– a clean machine today!  🙂

Doctor’s Visit:

– clearly I’m doing some better after a weekend where nobody got in my face about anything (but I Do Not feel rested starting a new workweek) – when we were going over my side effects I’m having and the meds I’m taking to manage them, I told my ROnc I’m aware of and consciously managing my CNS depressants – therefore, taking Benadryl to sleep and Tylenol #3 for pain management (although I’m likely to be upping my use of that some because I’m still getting too frequent and severe breakthrough pain), but I’m saving my Ativan for the next time I want to drop-kick someone’s head.  🙂  There was laughter throughout the room and she thought that was a very good use of that particular medication.

– so it seems my nipple issues are normal, or in the doctor’s words nipple sensitivity is common.  Mm-hm, so my nipple getting hard for no good reason and thereby causing me pain is common, so glad to know that.  Despite my (ongoing) concerns, I must be gooping up enough and with the right stuff ‘cuz the boob is Not Yet lobstered.  Woohoo!

Side Effects:

– more frequent breakthrough pain up to almost a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10

– lightheadedness/shaking: I’m guessing this is from a blood sugar issue since all I could think of when this started was FOOD, FOOD, FOOD, and when I ate a big bowl of cereal with raisins and most of a large banana (then ate the rest of the banana), I started to feel better.  It seems that lumberjack appetite is still here (‘cuz I’m thinking of having a peanut butter sandwich too).

– fatigue: was yawning on my drive from RTher to Work, and at 11:00am I could easily lay down and close my eyes.

Copyright Ridingthebcrollercoaster.com 2012 All Rights Reserved.

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Radiation Therapy Journal – Day 5 – Friday November 2, 2012

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.