Tats and zaps and hoots

Last Friday was radiation simulation day.  I laid on yet another skinny platform and slid into yet another over-sized tube.  My arms were way above my head and my head was tilted towards my right arm.  The net result was indeed quite uncomfortable for the as-yet-recovering left region; thank goodness I've been doing physical therapy to decrease the discomfort.  Fancy (CT scan) and ordinary (digital) pictures were taken to map my insides and outsides.  Huzzah to the discovery that my heart is tucked away deep inside my chest and is nowhere near the left chest wall, which is the region to be radiated!  Lasers pointed out coordinates on my body, and three of  those coordinates were permanently marked on my body by a pinhead-sized tattoo.  To accomplish the tattoos, the technician placed a drop of dye on each coordinate and then jammed the dye into my skin with a single needle poke.  One is front and center on my chest, visible with most V-neck shirts.  The other two are on the sides of my torso, near where my elbows rest.  They look like blue freckles.  And that was the end of radiation simulation.

Today was radiation dress-rehearsal day.  In the time since my simulation, the medical physicists took my data and plotted the radiation therapy that I am to receive.  This is arguably the most important part of the whole third quarter because they are tailoring the radiation exactly to my body.  The result should be maximized radiation therapy to the chest wall while minimizing damage to organs.  Today I got to go into the actual radiation room while the technicians took X-ray and digital pictures, again while laying on a skinny table, to confirm that the radiation will go exactly where the physicists have directed.  It was quick and painless, except of course for the stretching of the left arm muscles and nerves.  Tomorrow will be even quicker, and the pain decreases every day.  Yep, twice daily radiation starts tomorrow, and I'll have it every business day for 3 weeks.

The technicians took lots of digital photographs of me, mostly while laid out on the skinny table.  This is to ensure that I get into exactly the same position every day, and I suppose also to confirm that I'm the same person every day.  Wouldn't want to radiate the wrong person, that's for sure.  I'm hoping that their affinity for photos will make them amenable to my desire to snap a few myself.  It would be great to have a radiation photo series just as I made a chemotherapy photo series.

A barred owl has made its home in a tree in our backyard.  Ian is credited with this fabulous picture of it.  I'm taking the owl as a good omen, at least for the radiation portion of my cancer-treatment experience.  It's hoot sounds like it's saying, "Who cooks for you?  Who cooks for you all?"  I find it a very appropriate question for me and the radiation that will be cooking my chest wall.

Some good news...finally

The tissue that was biopsied on Monday is normal!!!  Huzzah!  What a relief!  I didn't think I was that nervous, but I must have been because my relief knows no boundaries.  Okay, well, the spine thing still has a hold on the negative side of my imagination, so I suppose that that forms at least one boundary to my relief.  But I am nonetheless QUITE relieved!

I'm getting closer and closer to being normal.  I quit taking the narcotic pain reliever today and did well.  Now I'm back to the place where my left "breast" hurts more than my right, which is how it should be in my world.  The right breast barely aches, and it looks surprisingly normal despite the absence of a walnut-sized piece.  It doesn't have a crater or anything.  Also, the nerve pain on the left side has started to subside, which is awesome.  I quit wearing my special sleeve, and goosebumps no longer make me gasp.  Another step in the normal direction is that I worked a full day of work and was moderately productive.  With every day that I put between me and the serious drugs I expect to gain more and more productivity.  I might even be able to drive myself to work tomorrow.

One new stage of my healing include itchiness.  It's kinda weird, too, because I'll have an itch sensation near the rainbow incision, but when I go to scratch it I have trouble finding it because I don't have feeling in the skin around the incision.  Same goes for the armpit area.  Rather than scratching the itch with my hand I have started scratching the itch by wiggling my shirt around.  This broadly-administered friction brings swift relief compared to the game of Marco Polo played by my fingers and the itch.

Tomorrow I have another physical therapy appointment.  I am really enjoying the physical therapy because it makes me stay on task with the exercises, and the exercises are really improving my range of motion.  Also, my therapist does some soft-tissue massage to help the scar tissue loosen up (i.e. stretch in more planes).  It's one of those things that makes me sore right afterwards but feels so much better the next day.

Also tomorrow is my radiation simulation appointment.  This is where my dimensions will be taken for the administration of the radiation.  I understand that I will be getting a couple of tattoos so that I am always put in the exact same position for every radiation dose.  I never wanted a tattoo, and I suppose I still don't want a tattoo.  I must admit, however, that having any tattoo makes me feel a little bit cooler.  Can you just see me at parties?  "That's a great tattoo, Lauren!  Where'd you get it?  Sweet.  I have a tattoo, also.  See?  I got it back in '11 so that my radiation treatments would be positioned properly.  Yea, I totally had breast cancer.  It sucked, but at least I got these sweet tattoos!"  Talk about conversation killer!