And Here We Go Again!

Well, radiation is over and done with.  Last day was November 1st.  YEAH!!  Even got my certificate of completion.  Hugs from all the technicians.  Got told they love me, but please don't ever need their services again.  Sorry guys can't guarantee that.

Actually I am happy because the last time I talked to Dr. Chinault I miss heard him.  They increased the radiation for me the last five treatments.  Not as high as he wanted because he didn't want to damage the biracial (I do believe that is the name, and it is spelled wrong) nerve.  The nerve that controls the right arm.  If it were damaged I would end up with constant pain in the arm for the rest of my life.  Not a good thing if you are right handed and like to decorate cakes.

The misunderstanding, he said that I was going to get 5 less treatments.  I'd get thirty instead of thirty five.  Some how I heard I was going to get sixty instead of sixty five.  Made me go huh??  But it all got worked out.

So now the area that got radiated is tanner than the rest of me, and dry.  I mean leather feeling dry.  Reminds me of how a young girl I worked with looked.  She was only twenty and loved being tan tan tan.  She spent every other day in a tanning bed.  The skin under her eyes was so dry, and it made her look older.  Sad she didn't see it. 

Hey, I know a tan can make you look better, but you have to be sensible about exposure.  Too much of a good thing damages you.  Me personally, I'll stay kind of pasty white.  Keep my "youthful" appearance, ROTFLMAO! 

They put the second port in Friday.  Had to be at the hospital at 10:45 and the "surgery" was at 12:45, except my doctor had a case before me and it ended up going on longer.  The nurse told me that the person he was operating on was initially suppose to have a tumor removed with laparoscopic surgery (is that even spelled right?) and ended up needing to be opened up. 

Knowing Dr. Flynn, he had already warned the patient that it may happen, and hopefully they went under expecting it.  All I know is I hope they are OK and they couldn't have had a better surgeon.

Oh yeah, Dr. Flynn is the only one (other than Jasmine and Michelle) who noticed my hair was a different color. (Well Jasmine and Michell saw all the color changes last weekend)

Yes, changes as in plural.  Hey, my hair is going to fall out anyway, so I figured I'd try bleaching it to a platinum blond.  You know that white color, my hair is coming in white not grey (yes I am old enough to have grey/white hair.)

Put the bleach on the hair, tips first then ends, applied heat, did a second process, and even a third.  My hair ended up being a very light coppery red.  Not a good color for me, so I picked a reddish brown, that turned copper orange. um yeah, that color ain't happening either.  So Jasmine went with me and I picked out a medium brown that had cooler tones in it.  My hair is very close to original with reddish highlights.  All that to end up where I started.  Just the white hair is all gone.  And no it isn't fried either.  I was blessed with some thick ass, super healthy, put up with anything hair.  Have had it all my life.

I am already wishing it were the end of chemo, but I think that should be expected, my last three rounds of chemo landed me in the hospital on a regular basis, and the one time I was in bad shape.  Took three blood transfusions plus three plasma transfusions to get back to almost normal.

But to me going through chemo is better than saying I give up.  I'll never do that.  I am a realist when it comes to cancer, it is a lifetime battle for me.  The kind I have comes back, it did, and this time it was in several places in my body, each one popping up at different times.  Several types of cancer do that.  Just because it does that doesn't mean it will always keep coming back, but it means there is a chance.  Just because they didn't get good margins doesn't mean it is still there, but there is a chance. 

I really haven't set down with Doc and asked about odds or anything like that.  The last tumor was attached to the main nerve that controls the right arm, and even in taking a couple branches of it (yes I can tell a difference, but the human body is amazing and other muscles are compensating for the lack of control of the ones that have no "nerve connection").  He didn't get good margins at the point where the tumor was attached to the nerve.  He thought he did, but the pathology lab said otherwise.

So chemo is a required preventive in my opinion, so was the radiation.   Hey nerves are connected through out the entire body, and the two ways to travel in the body at top speed are the nervous system and the circulatory system.

I will admit I am a bit concerned about the port.  It is red  and tender, but that may be because it was only yesterday that they put it in.  Oh yeah it is on the left side this time. and I have to keep it in for a year. 

If the redness and tenderness gets worse I'll be on the phone with Doc.  But for now I'll just keep an eye on it. 

I have a couple of birthday cakes to do so I really can't let it get in my way, at least at this point.

Oh well, off to the store, I need raspberries to make raspberry sauce.  One cake is going to be chocolate with raspberry filling, butter cream frosting.

Have a great weekend folks!