skin | Snorkeling the ABC Islands

I finished the last treatment and boost treatment on Tuesday April 19th. It felt so good to be finished this all. It has been tiring. I had a headache all of the next day, and I’m not sure why, perhaps a stress letdown or something, I don’t know, but I am not prone to headaches so it surprised me.

I had to go to the hospital and get 9 vials of blood taken from me and see the nurse for clinical trials. I am taking part in a clinical trial called MA 32. It involves taking a pill a day x 28 days, and then 2 pills a day x 5 yrs. The pill can either be a placebo or metformin 850 mgm I don’t know which I have. The theory behind the trial they are testing is to see if early stage breast cancer patients do better with metformin than those who don’t take it. I believe they found women who were already diabetic and taking metformin seemed to have better results for both survival and have less recurrance rates. Anyways when I met with my cancer Dr, Dr. Oja initially, I asked him if there were any clinical trials that were going on that I would be suitable for, and he told me about this one. Suits me. 🙂 I like the idea of being part of a possible solution to help fight this disease.

The radiology gals warned me, as did my radioncologist, that the radiation will continue to affect my skin and symptoms x 2 weeks. I have to say that is true. The skin continues to get more fragile even though the treatments have stopped. I am getting some pains in the breast, like zingers, and the crease/fold under the breast is red and raw and open. I continue to put hydrocortisone on it. I do have a prescription for flamazine, but I don’t have bigger weeping areas bigger than a quarter yet. The Dr told me to get the prescription filled if that happened.

I did a soak of the breast with cool water today and man did that feel good, it took some of the heat out of the breast for a time. They said to use saline soaks but I am not going to do that, I can’t see putting saltwater on the already irritated and open skin, so I’m sticking with water. 🙂

Yesterday we went for a walk in one of the woodland parks, and it was lovely. We went to Surrey lake park, and there we saw an eagle nest, with mama eagle’s head sitting up high in it, and daddy eagle came circling the nest. Cool stuff 🙂

I’m trying to make myself get up and do stuff, just to push through this fatigue. I have to say for the first time in months (even before the diagnosis I had told the Dr. I was feeling fatigue ++ ) (no doubt because of the cancer I didn’t know I had then), I woke up this morning and I don’t feel like an absolute dishrag. The morning is early yet, but I am hopeful that the bone crushing fatigue I’ve been feeling might actually be lifting. Hope. 🙂 Fingers crossed, and lets see what today brings. If I can get this inflammation down in the breast area, then I might feel like I’m getting back to normal here. The Dr told me they are inflaming the breast every time they radiate it, and I have not had alot of pains/zingers thusfar, but I am getting them now that the actual treatments have stopped. WEIRD. 🙂

…Pam…

Today is going to be my 14th treatment of radiation out of 25 so over half way done. 🙂 woo hoo! I can’t wait for my life to get back to normal. We have a routine now, where M drops me off at the cancer clinic and I go do my thing, and while I am off getting zapped, M takes Max for a walk at a nearby park or he goes and sits where the parking is free and reads and waits for me. Parking at the hospital is expensive so its our way of not having to pay close to a fiver ever day! 🙂

Last treatment on friday I saw the Dr and she told me they were taking me to another room to get marked up so they could measure and mark where they were going to do the more focused beam around the location where the tumor had been. So I ended up with a diamond shaped thing inked onto my right breast, and they said they will be drawing that mark on each time they do the focused beam. I forgot to ask the Dr how many of those more focused ones they do, but I suspect it will be the last week of the treatments. I still have 12 to go, including today’s.

My skin is holding up pretty well. I do notice it feels somewhat heavier in the area between the two incisions, almost like a “cooked” feeling, where flesh is firmer. The nipple on that side continues to darken, the skin gets redder especially right after the zapping but then seems to resolve back to it’s normal color, however I am left with the skin looking different shade than the right (a bit). So far no skin breakdown but I have been pretty diligent about using the olay moisturizing body wash and then the lubriderm moisturizer every day. Dr thought things looked good.

Fatigue continues to be an issue, and I find myself pushing myself to do things so that I don’t turn into a lump. My first inclination would be to not do anything, but I can’t sink into that. Yesterday Maurice was out pulling weeds out of the garden and I took a small rake and was able to pull a few out too using it. Nothing to strenuous but it felt good to be helping 🙂

I’m over half way done and my right arm numbness is persistant. The dreadful pain from the nerve irritation is gone now. What I feel is that my arm feels heavy, but it’s more because there is a big numb area in the back that feels like a blob I’m lugging around, as I can’t feel it except when it hits my body. It is a weird feeling but I’m getting used to it. Hopefully it will resolve itself, but I suspect I’m going to be stuck with this numbness for the rest of my life (my prediction) , the surgeon said that whatever I have at the end of one year, is what I will have the rest of my life… so we shall see, there might be room for improvement.

One thing I have been doing is eating junk food. I think I have been feeling sorry for myself and using that as an excuse to eat like crap. That has to stop. I know that the meds I am on raise cholesterol, and I don’t want that, and I won’t be helping myself at all if I continue to help raise my cholesterol on top of the meds, because I’m stupidly eating high fat crap.

_____________________________________ _______________ ________________ <– the line in the sand has been drawn.

Many thanks to everyone who has been emailing me, calling or coming over for visits. I’ve appreciated all. Also thank you to all the gals at work who sent the condolence cards and gifts for me on the loss of my dad. I was very touched. Thanks Sharman and Nikki for bringing the cards and gifts and the nice visit. You are all a great bunch of people to work with and the care and attention you’ve given to me while I’ve been off is a testament to that. Special thanks to Maggie, for her trips in to visit, and take me to radiation some times, for being a swell friend, and to Gen who unerringly calls to see how I am doing, to my sister Cathy and brother Peter who always check on me, to M’s parents who call and who’ve sent gifts, and especially to Maurice, who has always been there for me in every way. 🙂 I am a lucky gal.

…Pam…

Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao