Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Radiation Day 1

Believe it or not I'm excited to start radiation tomorrow.  Today I went in for a check to make sure I'm lined up correctly with the machine.  The radiation room looks just like the photo except for the fact that  there are tons of computer monitors on the other end of the wall.  It also had a 3 feet (I'm not exaggerating) thick door going into this room which takes forever to open.  The radiation machine was amazing.  It had all sorts of different x-ray arms that came out of it and rotated around my entire body.  Dr. White and a few nurses were in and out of the room calling numbers and adjusting my body on the table.  Speaking of Dr. White I found a youtube clip of her while I was searching for this photo.  Check it out!  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NoIEfauALY
I am happy to report that my hair is growing back.  It felt weird to shampoo it at first.  I kept looking down to see if it was going to fall out.  It didn't.  I also have prominent eyebrows again.  I was feeling more self conscious about my eyebrows than my hair.  I'm so excited and happy that I do not have to wear a hat anymore.  I was getting so sick of hats.
My left arm mobility is doing great.  I met with my physical therapist today and she said that I'm a fast healer.  I'll take that complement any day!  I am able to do all of my favorite activities such as riding my bike and playing tennis.  It feels good to be mobile again.  The radiation could affect my arm mobility so I will still follow up with my PT though out my radiation.
Lauren started school last week and we found out that another mom at Tyler Run has been diagnosed with breast cancer over the summer.  I told Lauren and she immediately said "I can help her."  Lauren gathered all of our kids books on breast cancer and delivered them the next day.  Lauren also found the little girl at recess and they played together.  I was so proud of Lauren for wanting to help others.  She has always been so tenderhearted and it was great to see Lauren act with such compassion.  I'm sure she gets that from Joe!
I talked with this mom for two hours on the phone last week.  Her story was shockingly similar to mine and brought back lots of memories from my life earlier this year.  Well of course that night I couldn't sleep and just like I did earlier this year I climbed in bed with each of my kids and held them while they slept and I prayed.  I got bored with that fairly quickly so I opened up pinterest on my phone and saw this quote.
I'm not sure if this was an answer to my prayer or just an awesome coincidence but either way I'm going to try and stop the worrying.  I know that this cancer out of my control.  I'm doing my best to control my health by exercising and eating well.  I still do feel grateful for many of the circumstances surrounding my cancer.  I feel grateful for the positive people I have had around me this year.  I sure that with time my worrying will become less frequent and manageable.

1 comment:

  1. Hope things went well! If it makes you feel better, I did not notice the eyebrow thing at all!

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