Wednesday was my herceptin treatment. It went very well, but I didn't get to sit in my regular spot. It ended up being a good thing because I sat next to a woman that was hilarious. Normally when someones bag of chemo is empty, the computer on their little pole will start beeping. Sometimes it is hard to know who's machine is beeping because we are all crammed in there together. This woman and I decided they should have little lights at the top, and it could go off instead of a noise- kinda like a blue light special- but instead of a good deal, you get another bag of poison! LOL! We then decided it should be more like disco balls, and the woman next to me even offered to do a pole dance if we could find someone to record it. See- it's not boring at all in there!
Thursday I got to start radiation! I went to the dressing room, got a slot with my name on it to keep my gown in, and a locker to put my valuables in. Then I waited tyo get called in. I had my measurements done with a CT machine, so I figured that is where I would get radiation but apparently not. I went to another room with a machine called a Linear Accelerator. They took more measurements, and gave me yet another tattoo (3 in total now). The man doing the measurements also colored all over my chest with a marker. The area inside the markings showed where to radiate. They zapped me a few times ( I couldn't actually feel anything) then they came in and put my bolus on (that is the hard waxy plastic form they made the time before) and then they zapped me some more. It took about 45 minutes, but they assured me that the following appointments would be much quicker. After that, I got up and got dressed and went home. On the way home I felt normal but I could sort of feel some weird twinges in my chest area. By the afternoon I was exhausted. I figured it must be from the herceptin that I had the day before. I have heard from lots of people that radiation is easy and you don't get really tired until later in treatment.
Friday I came in for treatment again and was delighted that it only took a matter of minutes. Jim came with me and we went shopping afterwards. Then we went home and I napped. It then occured to me that all through chemo, which the exception of the first treatment, I never napped! Yea I got kind of tired and blah, but I never had to stop what I was doing and sleep! Crap! That means that the radiation is already kicking my ass and I still have 5 more weeks of daily treatments! This is kind of upsetting to me because I really had planned on doing some stuff over the next month. Nevermind, I guess!
Other than complete exhaustion, my skin is getting kind of pink. It isn't really burnt, but it is tender. I alternate lubing it up with a special lotion from the oncology center, and aquaphor. Aquaphor is a pain in the ass though, because it is very greasy. I ended up cutting up an old shirt and after I grease myself down, I put the tshirt scraps on, then put a stretchy bra on over it all. I do this about 4 times a day, and while it is a pain- I am hoping my diligence will pay off and my skin won't burn very badly. I will do ANYTHING to be able to get my reconstruction surgery done in early summer! I don't want anything to mess it up.
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