Hi,
I received a couple of phone calls & text messages this week suggesting I pen a quick update; it's "not like you" to clam up and folks might might think something's wrong if I don't say otherwise!
Well, today I am six weeks post-chemo. Two weeks after each treatment I had additional hair loss, and for the last one I lost quite a bit of my eyelashes and more of my eyebrows and the small amount of regrowth on my head. Now, four weeks after that, the eyelash/eyebrow situation hasn't improved, but the kind of sparse hair that I have on my head is almost long enough to pinch between my fingers! I'm taking photos every month (an inch a month, said Dr. M!) and today's was the first. Not attractive at all, but progress! [can't find that photo; must have deleted it! 2/3/12] I am looking forward to a covering thick enough to hide my bone-white scalp, maybe in a couple more months!
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| Me & Coach cheering on the Tri-Dawgs at Lake Placid |
I have no lingering symptoms from the last chemo. I am slowly regaining some fitness. I had my 11th (out of 32) radiation therapy treatments this morning. I had four treatments the first & second week; this week and every week until I'm finished I will have five, except for Labor Day. RT is going very very well. Yesterday (Aug 1) I finally got slammed with the "fatigue" I was told I could expect in the third week, and what an odd beast that is! It's not like being tired from working out or from staying up too late the night before. It's like a heavy blanket and it comes on suddenly. The first hit was right after my treatment yesterday morning as I was driving home. I went for a walk when I got home and when I got back to the house the fatigue was gone! I took advantage and had a good workout, and then around 3:30 it happened again! This time I did try to nap, but after a sleepless hour, I was good to go again! So strange! Hey, if that's all I have to deal with, I'm happy!
Just for perspective: In radiation therapy, I am on the table getting treatment for maybe four minutes each weekday morning. I am getting "two fields" of therapy, that is, the machine (I think it's called a 2DXRT ... two dimensional xray therapy) aims a beam for a few seconds to one targeted spot, and then it moves from that side over me so that it is aiming the beam from the other side of my body for a few seconds. That's it. When I arrived one day this week, for the first time there was a patient ahead of me. Her appointment ran over by 20 minutes because of the complicated nature of her *20* FIELDS!! Can I tell you how lucky I feel with my two fields? I really got off easy.
So things are rolling right along. I am NOT wishing for a quick end to summer. Even though I am not on vacation all summer long, I like the easier pace. But when summer ends, so will all of this, so I've got something to be grateful for as the fall semester rush begins both at work and at home.
Love,
Diane
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