September 4, 2009

• Some Answers

  After the fact REMARK: 
  I'm so sorry about the misspelling about my "shirt" at therapy yesterday.  I can't believe someone caught it.  I sent the blog, started to read what came up, and IMMEDIATELY saw my typo, there.  It was correctly within 30 seconds of my first posting.  Technology is amazing!

  I'm home now from the radiation treatment and shopping at Wal-Mart and will be proof reading this post right after I save these few lines.

  ================================

  I don't exactly have the answers to everything, but I'm beginning to figure out *some* things!!! LOL

  First of all . . . remember how I felt really down about receiving radiation?  The fact is, I have enough of a medical background to know exactly what they are doing.  It seems all wrong.  Barbaric. 

  I think, in the future, people will look back on this old disease they called "cancer" and people will shake their heads and say in amazement, "Read this!  Remember that disease that used to kill people - they called it cancer???  Well look at what they used to do to treat it.  They used to fill people with poison through a tube in their arm (or a thing called a port in their chest) and then, after months of filling them with poison, they burned them from the inside-out with something called radiation!  Can you imagine?!"  And everyone listening will chuckle about the old days and the bizarre ways the people back then (in 2009) treated an ancient disease.

  I have no answers about cancer.  They gave me my first radiation therapy yesterday.  They were running unusually late and I had a 45 minute wait in a gown made to act as a shirt, but one with no armholes.  It just had flaps and revealed your entire rib cage and every bit of your front and back anatomy, if you didn't hold the flaps down.  I had taken a nausea pill, which made me thirsty.  I sipped my bottle of water while waiting.  When they finally called me, they said this first time would be longer because they needed to do some x-rays first.  Radiation AND radiation???  Whatever.  I said I thought I should go to the restroom quickly and was gone no longer than 60 seconds.  They took the lady behind me instead of waiting for me.  So, I waited another 5 minutes . . .

  After the treatment, while I was still on the table, they grinned at me and asked if I had been told about "the tatoo" they did.  Of course, I had no idea what they meant and figured a sticker to mark a spot.  They said it would be permanent (a sticker???) and then stuck me under my left arm.  It burned.  They were talking a REAL LIVE tatoo!!!!  I must have looked at the nurse like she had grown a second head because she said, "Don't worry.  It's the size of a freckle," and then stuck another needle in my chest bone area! 

  The other nurse was talking and I heard her say, "Is that clear and do you have any questions?"

  I gasped, "I'm trying to listen to you, but she (I pointed to the first nurse) is hurting me."  I was stuck again in my right side.  Thank you LORD . . . *that* was over.  Why do people have tatoos done on purpose?  The needle and dye hurts a whole lot more than when they draw blood in the lab!

  Anyway, I waited because the oncology nurse wanted to see me because of my severe dizziness and nausea.  They agreed to change my prescription and loaded me up with the digestive aid pills because everyone on the radiation side of the building kept stressing that dry heaves, nausea, and dizziness needed to be addressed NOW before the radiation therapy made them worse. 

  I thought this wasn't supposed to be that big of a deal.

  The radiation nurses said this was the last time they would draw on me with permanent marker ink.  And (like this was a special treat from them), I would be able to look at the squares they drew and see exactly what area had been treated with radiation.  I almost fainted when I looked in the mirror and saw their "squares" were actually "rectangles" and the width of the rectangles were as wide as my wrist.  They started from T-1 (about an inch below your collar bone) to the bottom of my last rib, with only a small clear space in between.  They also informed me that was the area on the front side of me AND the back side of me that would be treated and I needed to start moisturizing those areas immediately.

  I'm still not happy about this and only doing it because it's the best our medical field has to offer me in 2009.

  ======================

  If I wasn't so nauseated, I'd drown myself in chocolate!

  My sweet brother (2 years younger than me) sent me a surprise.  What in the world?  A box of milk chocolates!
   
  I love See's candy - especially milk chocolate!  What a dear brother.  I take back every mean thing I said or thought about you when we were younger!! xoxoxoxoxo   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  And remember the flood on the kitchen floor yesterday?  We went to the kitchen to eat lunch and the puddle was there again, but not as big.  Big enough, but not as big as the first one I found.  I was so fearful a pipe had burst.  I had to think logically before I realized there were no pipes in that area of the house.  Then I looked again, but more carefully, at our new jugs of water the girls had brought into the house.

  This is what I found.
              
  My assessment of it being about a gallon of water was fairly accurate!

  I don't know which child did this, but I bet that child will be more careful in the future when carrying in water!

  I'm waiting for Jesse to come home.  I need to go for my second radiation treatment this afternoon.  I guess we'll have to stop by Wal-Mart to pick up my new prescription and maybe some milk, etc.  There aren't many things on the grocery list.  I'd love to pick out a different type of meat besides chicken breasts and ground beef or ground turkey.  Nothing sounds good, but the idea of a variety and having a choice sounds VERY good.

  I made some cinnmaon rolls for breakfast.  Luci is feeling better and ate, and . . . well . . . I ate them.  I *was* able to taste them but not my ham sandwich at lunch.  Just another "blah" meal.
   

  Better run!

  Be Blessed  ~

  P.S.  Will have to proof this later for typos. 
  

  • 2:36 pm
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