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Showing posts from September, 2020

I finally got to start radiation today! 1/20

I'm not sure I'm supposed to be that excited about it but I totally am. Let's get this show on the road! I'm happy that I will be on my back. I wasn't sure until today. They gave me a scanner card. So I scan my card to go past the front desk, kind of like an employee. No more covid questions! Appointments are at 9:00 every morning. I see the oncologist on Wednesdays. One down, 19 to go!!!! 

Radiation take 2! This was not on my 2020 Bingo card!!

Last week was a tough week and I learned a lot about myself. Apparently I am fine as long as I am actively doctoring and working towards the end of my treatment. Due to a security issue with the hospital's IT system, radiation was cancelled with no future date knows. I was told maybe Thurs. then maybe Monday, hopefully is isn't more than a week! I didn't handle that news so well.  Thankfully the system was restored on Sat. (a week later, 3 days after my original radiation appointment, and I will begin tomorrow! I will have 20 daily treatments with a re-simulation after 15. It should take 4.5 weeks from tomorrow.  I NEED my planner!! 

My hospital's IT system shut down, radiation has been delayed, and I'm allergic to aquaphor...

I have a feeling I won't start radiation until Monday Sept. 28. System is still not up. I can't even get a hold of them to figure out what hydration ointment I can use now. Oh yeah and we are having electrical problems at home and our dishwasher isn't working. I think we did avoid a house fire last night though....I've had better couple of days. 

Radiation will begin Sept. 23rd/Just Kidding

Update: The hospital was hacked and it's IT systems is down. You can do radiation without tech so radiation is postponed until they get their systems up and running again.  Read about it here. Today I had a long appointment with my radiation oncologist. Healing looks good and we will radiate the whole breast for 3 weeks and then he will most likely target the area for a 4th week. One thing I am learning is the plan is always fluid. That being said there haven't been a lot of surprises or issues so that is good.  We did CT simulation on my back but also on my front (not my favorite but doable). I have sharpie marks on my front and back because they aren't 100% sure which way I'm going yet. My area was actually large and went from the peck muscle to the outside skin so they are covering a lot of area and very close to the chest wall. He said I picked a good side though (right is preferable because of your heart being on the left). They will radiate the entire breast for 3

Nothing to see here.

Another follow up appointment with the surgeon today. Scars look good, see you in 4 months! I'm looking forward to next week's appointment with my radiation oncologist. I am so anxious to get radiation started! (and done). I'm on season 8 of FRIENDS. I'm gonna run out of episodes. Have watched AWAY yet?? I'm watching that too. Do NOT watch that without a box of tissues! That's all I have for updates for this week. 

No chemo needed!

This morning I met with my medical oncologist. Up until last night at midnight I didn't think anything of this appointment. Then for some reason, at midnight, I started thinking OMG WHY are they having me meet with the medical oncologist BEFORE the radiation oncologist and I PANICKED. I thought for sure they were going to tell me margins weren't clear enough and I would need chemo. Therefore I lost a whole night of sleep. The ONLY reason I could think of them wanting to treat with chemo is that one margin was only .06 cm from my chest muscle wall and they generally want close to a 2 mm margin.  For a change I was thankful for my early 8 AM appointment where he confirmed that the cancer was contained and he confirmed that margin should be OK because it wasn't invasive.  So treatment remains the same. I am having radiation, and I am going on hormone blocker. So to sum up, nothing changed and I panicked for nothing. Most of the time is I am calm as a cucumber about my appointm