Cancer Schmancer

Claire drove me to PMH this morning and kept me company for blood work, treatment and my doctor visit. Everything went smoothly, starting with finding a parking spot that didn't require parallel parking -- yay! The blood lab was backlogged, but eventually I got done, then only waited a bit for my beam team to call my name. The doctor wait was shorter than usual, too. The doctor said my next visit will be a follow-up in October, when my blood counts will be checked again. The current counts are not bad and heading in the right direction.

Follow-ups from now on will be alternately with the gynecology oncologist and the radiation oncologist, every three months, to make sure I'm showing no signs of recurrence and am recovering normally from treatment. Imaging will not be part of that beyond the usual screening schedule because tumours must be a significant size to be seen and other symptoms are earlier indicators.

So now I just have to get through the final five treatments and begin to rebuild my feeble body by eating well and exercising (yeah, right!).

Posted by lynda at 12:49 PM | Permalink

Today marked the last of the major radiation treatments; starting tomorow I have seven more covering a smaller area. The beam tech said I won't feel an improvement in the side effects right away because the wide-area treatments continue to do their work for a while. Still, psychologically, I will look upon this as a beginning of my recovery from radiotherapy.

Bob and Claire have volunteered to drive me downtown for four of the remaining trips to PMH -- a very welcome gift!

Posted by lynda at 04:11 PM | Permalink

(Photo by RGDaniel. Click picture to enlarge.) A few days ago I looked down at the back of one of my garden beds and found this in full bloom -- a bulb I had planted months ago and forgotten.

Posted by lynda at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Another ghastly week is done and I have two days to start feeling functional again. The fatigue is almost overwhelming now and the side effects on my insides are continuous, but still managable with drugs.

I had a couple of bad trips in the cancer wagon this week. Some people don't know that treatment can make you hypersensitive to smells; most people in the cancer club do know and they are careful about it. But I had one driver too lavish with perfume and I was trapped in a van without an openable window. Two days later it was a passenger who reeked of cigarette smoke. In both cases, I tried to relax and send calming thoughts to my churning stomach.

I have just four more days of the full treatment, then another seven of reduced radiation (smaller area), so I can now visualize the end to this adventure.

Posted by lynda at 02:28 PM | Permalink

Monday will be the halfway point of my treatments and thank goodness! This week has been difficult, with increasing fatigue every day that has a deadening impact on my outlook as well as my ability to do many things. The expected side effects on my digestive system are pretty much under control, as long as I am careful not to eat too much at once.

Yesterday's cancer wagon driver was a hiker, so we talked about the Bruce Trail Association and some good hiking spots he had found. It's hard for me to imagine hiking a trail again, but I know this incapacity will pass. I may even get to it before the snow flies, eh?

Posted by lynda at 04:03 PM | Permalink

Today's beam team was all female, so we had a fashion moment while all three admired my luscious new robe, purchased last night with the help of Sara, Bob's niece, who works at La Senza. It covers the same area as the standard hospital issue, but in white cotton/lycra with satin trim it feels yummy.

The trip was a record-setting six+ hours today because the cancer wagon had to go to Sunnybrook first and there was a nasty pileup on the 401. My driver was a photography buff, so we chatted about SLR versus digital and the passing of Cartier-Bresson. He told me the Mississauga Cancer Society has 60 drivers, but it's still not enough for all of the people who need rides (that's why we have to make stops at Sunnybrook). On the way home we picked up a little boy and his mom at Sick Kids. He looked to be about 4, rosy-cheeked and clutching a furry toy. His mom said they had been there all day, so it was no surprise that he fell asleep within minutes of getting in the car.

My beam team told me today that fatigue is proportional to the extent of radiation. The reason I am so exhausted is that I am being treated over a relatively broad area. Very glad to find that out so I know I'm not just being a wuss.

Posted by lynda at 06:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I went back to my daily treks today, accomplishing treatment 6 out of 30, and it was a bit gruelling. Not the treatment itself, which was only a bit delayed from the scheduled appointment and took more or less the usual amount of time, but the peripheral stuff. Like having the cancer society driver show up half an hour early and I was about to eat lunch, then getting to PMH and going to the blood lab first, only to find that there were no orders in the computer for the lab to act on. To correct this, I had to go to the radiation nurse's clinic, where they were much preoccupied with people suffering far more than me, and wait until someone would key in the orders to take my blood and test it. Then back upstairs (and I try to avoid the elevator so I'll get some exercise) to the lab where I didn't have to wait long and everyone was laughing and joking about Caribana (the Toronto event of the summer if you like Caribbean music, food, etc.).

Once I was back downstairs and checked in for treatment, I had to wait a while because my unit (the radiation machine) was listed as 30 minutes delayed. This information appears on a computer screen as you check in (via a bar-coded card) and it's very useful. Just the fact of being informed about the status makes you feel part of the process in a way that might be underestimated by those outside the experience. Consequently I got a lot of knitting done before they called me -- I'm in danger of finishing the first of the projects I bought for my September workshop.

I had to wait a very long time for the ride home, making the whole expedition a five-hour effort. Yikes! I look forward to tomorrow, when Bob will take me down to PMH.

Posted by lynda at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Week one of radiation treatment is over and I have a three-day breather before I go back to the daily treks downtown. Now that I know what to expect and how the cancer society carpooling works, it's pretty easy to cope with. I feel much more fatigued than I expected and the nausea is definitely there but managed quite well with medication. I'm able to do a little of everything -- housework, walking my dog, gardening -- but not nearly as much as I want to.

I was thinking wistfully the other day about rollerblading, wondering if I would ever do it again. I think so, but ever so slowly at first. I am still feeling sore from a body slam to my lower leg from Silver (Claire's boxer) last Wednesday. He thought he could get to the top of the stairs faster by going through me.

Posted by lynda at 11:56 AM | Permalink