I had my last treatment on November 4th. I got really sick on the 6th and spent the whole day moving as little as humanly possible, and my eyebrows and eyelashes have gotten VERY thin, but it's over now and that is a GOOD thing.
After I finished chemotherapy, this was the end of my 4th cycle (8th treatment) they had me go in for a fresh PET scan and found me to be very lacking in cancer cells, the official report was something about being much reduced and some fancy words I didn't entirely understand, but the doctor told me what it means is that I don't light up anymore under the fancy camera. The PET scan itself was actually pretty uncomfortable, I decided to have them put the contrast I drink into root beer this time and it tasted pretty gross so between that and my port being accessed to put in the radioactive sugars I was feeling kind of sick and when they went to clear my port at the end I started puking. 4 rounds of chemotherapy and I only throw up once a tiny bit but one day of contrast and I managed to empty the contents of my stomach afterwards. We had my favorite dinner afterwards to comfort me. Homemade Mac'n'Cheese. :) I have a good mom.
Since the scan was so good we talked about what the next few month and hopefully years of my life will look like now that my treatment won't be with my primary oncologist every time. For the first while I will see my oncologist every month, and then it will eventually be every couple months until I only come in once a year and then maybe less than that. Slowly getting my life back.
Today I went in to get things started with my radiation treatment, even though my scans look good they are going to treat it with radiation to clear out anything extra and hopefully keep it from ever coming back. At my appointment today we set up my plan with my radiation oncologist, I will have 15 treatments starting December 1st and going on 5 days a week for 3 weeks. For my treatments they made a special mask of this hard plastic stuff that goes over my head and shoulders and locks to the table so that they won't have to use tattoos to direct the radiation. At some point maybe I'll get a picture of it, it's pretty cool/weird. They said I can keep the mask when my treatment is over.
After the mask was made they did a few CT scans to get specific locations for my treatment plan, I got that fun iodine contrast again that makes it feel sort of like you've peed your pants. This sensation isn't so bad but I did feel squirmy feeling as I got all warm while I was locked down to the table by the mask. I'm glad it didn't take very long.
So now I'm free to do as I please until December 1st. My blood counts are still low and my hair is not yet returning, but I am gradually feeling better. Already I think my energy has increased and I am less afraid to use my muscles. I think I'll be ready to get back on a fitness plan in the New Year and I am definitely looking forward to that.
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