Let's Get it Started!

Hooray and finally!

I will be starting Radiation this Thursday.  I never thought I would actually be saying that I am excited about starting another leg of this cancer journey.  But after an almost 2 month delay, I am definitely ready to get this ball rolling again.

It was going to work out so perfectly.

I was going to be finished with Radiation about this time, right in time for school to get out and a carefree summer to begin.

But now I will be starting Radiation right when school gets out and finish up on July 5, if everything goes according to plan.  Please let everything go according to "the plan" this time!

Here's how Radiation works...

Last Thursday I went in for a CT scan.  They did this so that the doctor can "map out" a treatment plan just for me.  I am now the proud owner of 6 tattoos.  Although you have to squint to see them.  They are basically just like a really small, blue freckle.  I have 3 down the center of my chest, one on each side of my rib cage and one where I had the lumpectomy way back when.  They gave me these lovely blue dots so that they can line me up in exactly the same position every time I go in for a treatment.  

(Me taking a picture of myself in the car before I went to my appt.  Mark was out of town so he couldn't come with me.)

This Thursday when I go in, I will first go to an xray machine so they can make sure that they will only be radiating places that need the radiation- not my lungs or my esophagus or anything else.  I will then get zapped for the first time with a healthy dose of radiation.  

Then I will go in every day after that- Monday thru Friday that is- for 25 days.

Fortunately each treatment will only be about 15-20 minutes.  It will take me longer to get undressed and dressed again then it will to do the actual treatment.  :/

One other fun little fact to throw in here now.  I had an appointment with my oncologist last Friday.  Just a check-up to see how my blood is doing, how I am doing that sort of thing.  My blood counts are great, which is fantastic news.  I am feeling pretty normal for someone who just finished chemo a few months ago and has had 3 surgeries in the past few months.  I am not normal in the fact that chemo is supposed to stop all hormone production. (Sorry, about to get a little personal here.  Maybe this will be TMI, but oh well.)  Well, guess who still had a monthly cycle after one treatment of chemo?  Me.  Guess who has also had that blessed event return only 2 months after chemo?  Yup.  Me.  This presents a little problem.  Remember how my cancer is estrogen positive?  That means that in order for my particular cancer cells to grow, they need estrogen.  Ovaries are the main producer of estrogen and from the looks of it, mine have a Super Power and like to produce lots and lots of estrogen.  Awesome...

This means that I had to start the drug Tamoxifen, which I will have to take for the next 5 years.  Usually people get to wait until after they are done with Radiation to start this drug.  But as we have learned, I like to spice things up a bit...live life dangerously and that sort of thing.

But I digress....back to Radiation.

Once I have finished Radiation, I should have a little bit of a break until my final reconstruction surgery this fall.  I may have to add a hysterectomy to that surgery as well.  That's what my oncologist is recommending.  Still have to talk to my gynecologist about that. 

That's the plan....but who knows what surprises my body still has in store?