Treatment Round 1

I’ve been trying to write a perfect blog post, and finally just gave up.  I'm giving you a quick overview of what's going on since obviously the perfect has been enemy of the good enough. What you are not hearing here is my long list of thank-yous and the long list of all the blessings that have come out of this.

I’m in my last week of six weeks of radiation!! I have been getting radiation every Monday – Friday, and my last day is May 11^th!

I've been tolerating the radiation really well with only minor side effects. I have had slight “sun burn” to the scalp. Then starting 3 ½ weeks ago I shed about two-thirds of my hair; but because I had a lot start with, I was able to get away with just a comb-over and headbands for a few weeks (channeling my late father with the comb-over). And now bandannas and scarves are making do. It's not bothering me much other than the fact that I need to leave time to fuss with my hair, which I've never had to do (my previous beauty routine was to wake up, run my fingers through it, flatten it down with water and let it be a crazy mess).

The fatigue that is common with this treatment kicked in much earlier than it did with the radiation I had for my breast cancer 2 years ago . So after the second week, I added naps to my day!  Usually short- 10 to 15 minutes- but they add up. So that is another hour or two out of the day.

The radiation is combined with a low dose of pill form chemotherapy to help the radiation be more effective. They had me on anti nausea medicine just in case, but I have not needed it. This makes me really hopeful that the higher dosage of chemo I'll be taking over the summer might not make me too awfully sick. Starting in June, I will have chemotherapy one week on, then 3 weeks off.  Again, it will be oral chemo so I just take a pill at home in the evening each day, but at a much higher dose.

The most constant and irritating side effect of the cancer is the loss of my right arm function caused by the swelling around the tumor and possibly damage done by the cancer itself.

I've gotten quite a bit of movement back in the last week or so, but functionally it doesn't really work . It is numb from the elbow down and doesn't know where it is in space, so I do it a lot of knocking things off counters and swiping papers off tables with my right arm. Oddly, although the muscles are weak from lack of use, if I can get something in my hand and close it, I can lift with that side. But it just forgets to hold cause it has no feedback... so then I drop things. So usually I just can't use it -- it's a very odd problem.

Generally I'm able to keep a sense of humor about it and appreciate how well it does work and how little I really am being affected by this whole brain tumor. But I have to admit in the last week or so the constant irritation of not being able to do things that I can normally do is definitely getting to me. If I am not intentional about keeping a good attitude, it is easy to start to become irritated and that just starts a downward spiral.

My actual treatment at the hospital is only about 15 minutes . But I usually leave the house around 7:30 and I'm not home till 11 because of appointments and waiting for rides and blood draws excetera excetera.  When I look around at what is not getting done here, I have to remind myself that just dealing with the cancer is a half time job!

-Kelly