December 14, 2010 - Radiation

I started my daily radiation treatments yesterday.  I wanted to be able to go at 9:15 every day, so I'd have plenty of time to get to the shop to open at 10AM.  But the best they could do was to schedule me at 9:45 - so I can't open until 10:30 every day.  I'll need to change my Hours of Business sign.

So, every day I go to the oncology clinic and sit in the waiting room until they call me.  Tuesday is a day when all they are doing all day is radiations - no consultations.  So everyone in the waiting room is just waiting for their 15 minutes with the ray gun.

When I get into the radiation room, my "pillow" (not to be confused with My Pillow, the greatest pillow in the world, created right here in Carver, MN) is waiting for me on the table.  It's a mold that was taken of my head (positioned to the side) and arms (up over my head) so that each time I go for a treatment, I'm in the exact same position I was in when they took the initial measurements.  They take a few minutes to position me on the table so that my little freckle-sized tattoos are positioned exactly where they need them, then I get a series of blasts from the ray gun.

When I say "they," I'm referring to Molly and Julie, the technicians who operate that machine.  They're the most cheerful people I've ever met, constantly using words like "perfect," "great," and "awesome" when lining me up for my blasts.

I get four blasts, each from a different location, radiating my entire left breast as well as lymph nodes in my neck.  There's nothing to see, and I don't feel a thing.  But eventually (after a couple of weeks) these treatments begin to add up and I will start feeling the symptoms of severe sunburn, like tingling, pink skin, burning, red skin, possibly peeling, etc.  For this reason, they recommend that I apply 100% aloe gel to the area every day, even twice a day - or more.

Another side effect is fatigue, although Dr. Sperduto (pictured, left) didn't think the fatigue from radiation would be as great as the fatigue I experienced from chemo.  We'll have to see.

According to Dr. Sperduto, this radiation will do some irreparable damage to a small portion of my left lung, which is "in the way" of the blasts, but I probably won't even notice.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

I still haven't fully recovered from the brutal week I put in last week.  But I am starting to feel a little more normal.

Dr. Sperduto's (my radiation oncologist) office called today to schedule the finalization of my radiation plan, which we will do tomorrow afternoon.  Then Monday my weekday treatments will begin.  I'm sure, judging from how quickly the 16 weeks of chemo went, that the next six weeks will breeze by.

Sunday, December 5, 2011

Thankfully, it was a short day at the shop today.  Al & I went to Perkins for breakfast, and the shop was only open from 10AM - 2PM.  My friend, Marcia, came at 2:00 to give me acupuncture - poor dear has a broken arm (a victim of the ice storm we had earlier).

At 4:30, my friend Ann came over, and the three of us walked across the street to the Pumas, where we had a lovely champagne celebration of the end of my chemo treatments.  They had great hors d'ouevres that I ate so much of, I didn't need any dinner the rest of the night.  We had a lovely time with our dear neighbors.

Friday, December 3, 2010

It would have been nice to have been able to sleep in this morning, after all I had been through during the week.  But, no.  I had an 8:00 AM consultation with my radiation oncologist, whom I was just meeting for the first time today.  Al came with me, and as we sat in the waiting room (we got there at 7:30), I tried not to think about how tired and sore I was.

During this consultation I learned exactly what radiation does, what its side effects are, and what to expect from the machine.  They lined up the various angles of the beam (I’ll be getting four zaps every day), and gave me four little freckle-sized tattoos so that each time everything will line up correctly.  Then I had to go to the hospital imaging center for a CT scan.  With all of this data, the doctor will develop the final radiation plan which we will meet on one more time before radiation starts on Dec. 13.

They had told me to expect a 1.5 hour appointment, so I fully expected to be back at the shop by 10:00.  But things went more slowly than expected, and I didn’t get back to the shop until 11:30.  Bev opened the shop for me, although she wasn’t going to be able to ring up any sales.  But she at least was able to let people in and explain my absence.  On the way in, I had stopped at the McDonald’s drive through, and after eating felt much better.

I tried to spend the rest of the day sitting down as much as possible.  Considering this was still part of the occasional shop weekend, I still had a couple of sales days to get through.  But December is never one of the busiest weekends for the sales.

Thursday, December 2, 2010 -- SAVVY SOIREE DAY

I slept fitfully all night, thinking of things that needed to be done and worrying about whether we’d be ready when the Soiree was supposed to start.  I went in to the shop at 7:00 AM, and worked in the back room until about 8:45, then headed home to let the air duct cleaners in.  Unfortunately, they were running behind, so didn’t get to our house until 9:45.  I gave them a quick tour of where the furnace was, where each of the vents and cold air returns were, then left to go back to the shop.  They said they’d be there for 4.5 hours today. 

The first friend to show up was Ann, shortly after I got back at 10:00 AM.  She started vacuuming.  Then Bonny and Connie showed up.  They set up their areas, then asked what they could do to help me.  Then came Suzanne, all the way from Dayton (by Rogers), and a while after that Luda arrived (from Zimmerman).  These five ladies kept me sane.  Suzanne and Luda are from my floristry school, so they made a few arrangements for the cooler and did whatever I asked.  All of them were awesome.  Before I knew it, it was approaching 5:00 PM, and the shop looked amazing.  Alena showed up with her gourmet cookies, Connie brought back shortbread, and Bonny brought mini-cupcakes.  Bev and Sharon also arrived to help.  These people are the reason I got through this event.

Although I was mostly numb by that point, I was conscious enough to realize that the event was happening, people were filing in, the CD player was playing Christmas music, and it was going just fine.  John, our speaker, did an amazing job and everyone asked him a lot of very good questions.  We gave away tons of door prizes, and there were a lot of squeals of delight.  I was also ringing up sales, which Ann, Suzanne, and Luda were alternately bagging up for customers.  Customers were saying wonderful things about how darling our shop was, and what nice merchandise we had, and that they would certainly be back. 

When it was over, Suzanne and Luda helped clean up, while Bonny, Connie, Melody and Roberta were packing up their things.  I think it was 9:00 PM when I got home.  I, of course, had to tell Al all about everything (and knew I was forgetting things).  It took awhile to unwind enough to get to bed, but a nice warm soaking bath helped.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

I took two sleeping pills last night, and slept hard, like a rock.  In fact, I found it hard to wake up this morning.  When I got to the shop, there were boxes and boxes of fresh flower product that had been delivered early this morning for my Soiree – poinsettias, roses, lilies, etc., etc.  It took an hour or two to process the flowers and unbox the plants and set them out.

I realized that my ad deadline for the January, 2011 Savvy.MN magazine was due today, so stopped everything to get that done.  Then I got a call from my friend, Matt, who does our heating and plumbing.  I had let him know weeks before that I wanted to get our air ducts cleaned and sanitized, because my allergies had been really bothering me during the chemo.  Matt was calling me to schedule air duct cleaning tomorrow.  TOMORROW.  Like I needed another thing to worry about tomorrow.  But they have been so busy they were way behind schedule, and if I didn’t take that appointment, who knew when he’d get back to me with another time.  So I said, OK.

I had declined any help for today or tonight, thinking I wasn’t sure how long I was going to be able to last myself.  I worked on things all day – primarily trying to get the back room cleaned up for the refreshment area.  But at the end of the day, after spending the entire day on my feet, I was exhausted, achy, and depressed – it didn’t look like I had accomplished enough.  But I had to quit.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

I couldn't sleep again last night.  The night of every chemo appointment is a night of insomnia, due to the steriods in the anti-nausea drugs I get.  At 2:00 AM I was still wide awake, but I thought I'd better at least try to sleep.  I lay awake in bed until 4:30, when I got up, went downstairs, and read.  I heard Al get up at 5:30 and take his shower,  He suggested I try again, so at 6:30 I went back to bed -- and did manage to sleep until 8:30 AM.

Still feeling pretty good, though – high energy, no pain, a little heartburn – but Wednesday evening and Thursday will be the real test, to see if foregoing the shot had any measurable impact on my body’s reaction to the chemo.

I worked on Soiree prep all day today – unpacking new product that’s been coming in, pricing it and entering it into inventory.  We opened a few new lines in anticipation of a bunch of new people (48 have signed up so far) coming in to see our wares – we got Thymes fragranced body products, Abdallah  chocolates, gourmet gift basket items (like crackers, summer sausage, cheese, etc.). 

I also brought over all the rest of the Christmas décor (wreaths, swags, faux evergreen pots, etc.) in the hope that I’d get some help decorating the space (including the “non-occupied” half of the room).  Sure enough, three wonderful friends – Sharon Hartung, Kathy von Walter, and Diane Villars – offered to come in tonight for a couple of hours to be my slaves.

In less than two hours, they transformed the front room – all the new product was beautifully displayed, all the wreaths and swags hung, and the tops of the tall shelves and cupboards were decorated.  It gave me a new appreciation for the phrase: “Many hands make work light.”