Radiation Complete. Check.

I'm officially done with radiation! Woo-hoo!!

Actually, I was officially done with radiation yesterday. When I finished my appointment they gave me a certificate that all the therapists had signed. I got hugs from all of them, and they all wished me the best in my recovery. What an amazing group of women I had working with me throughout that process. I will miss seeing their smiling faces everyday, but I definitely won't miss the radiation.

Most of the area where I had radiation is already healing. As you know, the last 7 sessions I only received radiation (the electron kind) in the area of my incision. So the surrounding areas, where I had been receiving the X-ray radiation for the previous 28 sessions, have had a little over a week to heal.

Most of it has turned tan. I still have a couple of areas of pinkness, one area that is dry and has mostly peeled (scaled) off, and then the area under my armpit which is a mess. That's the part that got the worst of it. And, it was made even worse because of the friction between my arm and my body. That area is just black and several layers of skin are peeling off at once. They've recommended almond oil or vitamin E oil (I'm using an almond oil that also contains vitamin E) to help keep the area moist and to help those outer layers to separate from the newer, less damaged skin underneath. I also keep bandages over it to keep it moist during the day. Actually, they gave me something called "Flexigel" which is a sort of bandage that feels sort of rubbery. It seems to be used a lot in burns to keep the area moist to promote healing. I used that directly against my skin, with a non-stick gauze bandage over top for extra padding. Anyway, some of that has skin has started to peel off and the pain is beginning to subside now that the burn is starting to heal. I also think the Flexigel helps with the pain because that area isn't drying out and tightening up or being rubbed by my arm.

When I was 16, I once fell asleep on my stomach at the beach (I lived in Florida) for three hours. You can imagine how burnt I was when I woke up. For the next few weeks, I couldn't even straighten my legs completely because the skin behind my knees was so tight from the sunburn. The skin under my arm is about 5 times worse than that. But, now it's healing, and I'm very happy to have radiation behind me.

Today, I spent half the day at the hospital getting another CT scan and bone scan. It was an interesting day because when I went in to get the injection for my bone scan, they had a really hard time getting into my veins. I only had chemo treatment once in my right arm, and it apparently really affected my veins because it used to be really easy to find veins on me. Not so today.

First, they tried a spot in my arm. Apparently, it rolled away. The guy tried chasing it for a while, but just couldn't make it happen. Then, he tried a spot in my hand. He did hit the vein, but apparently went right through. The first thing they do when they put the injection in is to flush with saline. Now my hand is kind of swollen because the saline missed the vein. Actually, the swelling was due to them having to put the tourniquet back on to try and hit yet another vein. Which they did successfully.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of my being poked with sharp objects. When I went to have the CT scan, they needed to check my kidney functions to make sure I would be able to eliminate the contrasting fluid they give during the scan. Of course, they determine that with a blood test. They thought they could get enough blood to test it from one of those tests where they just poke your finger (I forget what it's called). So, they tried two fingers on my right hand... unsuccessfully. Then, they tried one on my left hand. They had better luck with it, but still didn't get enough blood. So, finally, they just drew blood with a needle, which worked. So, I was basically poked with needles 7 times today!!

Anyway, the new scans are for restaging purposes to determine my next round of chemo. The whole time I was there, I just kept thinking, "They're not going to find anything new." The interesting thing was that this thought wasn't a mantra that I used to try and keep myself from worrying or to try to make it be true. When I said it, I believed it to be true. I really feel like they're not going to find anything new with these scans.

My next appointment is on November 14 (Tuesday), when I meet with my oncologist to follow up on all these tests. That's when we'll make some determinations about my next round of treatment.