Weeks 32 - 35: The "BABY" edition: Baby Fuzz; Baby Tats; Burn Baby Burn; & Big Baby

Well, it's Saturday, October 9, and I have spent my first full week home in 2 months. I'm sore, and I'm pooped, and I have done some major lazing around this week. I'm finally sitting down at the computer to report on my last 4 weeks of Radiation treatments.

So, Part I of my BABY edi- tion: THE BABY FUZZ: On Sunday August 29 I finally spotted what I had been looking for for several weeks - little baby fuzzies growing on my head! I kept hunting for some, and finally decided I needed to quit looking so often. So after not looking for a few days, there they were! Even though the doctor kept assuring me that my hair would grow back, there's still a little tendency to think, "Yeah, but what if?"

So one month later, on Sep. 30, Brenda took a few pictures of my month-old "babies". Wow, they're so dark! On top they're only about 1/4" long, but the ones in back are much more ambitious at 1/2". Notice the Vana White hand to present the new babies!

Part II of my BABY edition: BABY TATS: If you look really close, my finger is pointing at one of my 5 tattoes. This is the one right in the middle of my sternum. Not a whole lot bigger than a few tiny little freckles I have close by. It's been more than a month since I took this picture, and the bluish ink seems to have spread a bit, making the tattoes a little bigger & fuzzier looking. I always knew that tattoes lose their clarity and color after some time, but after just 1 month? How disappointing! That's not what I paid for!

Part III: BURN BABY BURN!: Ouch, the last few weeks of radiation treatments were rather miserable. It took a while, but the skin burns started to kick in, and radiation was no longer "a piece of cake." My radiation doctor told me that with chemo behind me, radiation was a piece of cake by comparison. Hmmmm, I'm not so sure if I agree with that. It might be because I tolerated chemo fairly well. And maybe it's because I'm pretty fair skinned, and they were cooking parts of my body that have never seen the light of day in their lifetime. But I burned pretty good and it got pretty uncomfortable.

They describe radiation burns as kind of similar to bad sun burns. Having had my share of bad sunburns, it is a good description. However, it's like going out and getting sunburned, then being stupid enough to go lay out in the sun some more the next day, then the next day until the

skin turns a leathery red-brown, and starts to fall off! Of course, sunburns are only on the surface, and Radiation burns go all the way through. In fact the doctor told me that the very bottom edge of my right lung would get fried away. He assured me it wasn't enough for me to ever notice breathing-wise, but it would be noticeable to a Radiologist if I ever had a chest X-ray.

He also said that my ribs on the right side would be very brittle for awhile from getting cooked (OK - getting cooked isn't how he said it, that's my wording) and he told me to not take a fall, because I could easily break some ribs. Okay, I'll work on that!

Here are a few pictures of some of my burns. My armpit was especially sore, since my arm would rub on it. The part of my scar under my armpit can be seen, and some of the black Sharpie dots the doctor drew around the scar. The last week of radiation was just around the scar area - they call it a "scar boost" since the scar tissue is more

dense and requires more radiation. So my poor, sore, peeling armpit got a reprieve the last week. Good thing, cause I don't think I could take anymore there.

A strip on my ribs under my breast was also misery. This pic is kind of blurry, but my finger is pointing at another tattoo, which ends up forming the corner of the burn area.

In the third pic my finger is once again pointing at my sternum tattoo, so you can see how the burn radiates from that point. That area has been the least red and sore, probably because it's tougher skin having seen the sun on occassions when swimming and such. (That was years ago, though. This body hasn't seen a swimming suit in years!)

Speaking of swimming suits, I have a pic here of most of the radiation area after the burns started to heal. To avoid being too risque', I put in a digital swimsuit. Lovely, ain't it! You can see that some of my worst parts have peeled off leaving "new" pink skin. You can see why this flabby body wouldn't be caught dead in a swimming suit in real life! I know, some might feel it questionable to include some of the pics I have in this blog, but I had no clue what to expect concerning incisions and burns and such. Anyone reading and seeing this will certainly have a better clue what to expect than I did!

When the burns got pretty painful, and my skin started to come off, my doctor asked me if I wanted some pain pills. I told him that I didn't really want to get into those. That Friday, Sep. 24, Rich came and met me in Idaho Falls, where we left our truck in the clinic parking lot, and went to Provo so we could see BYU's Choir Showcase, since Chase is in Concert Choir again this year. It's always so fun to see his concerts.

This concert was particularly special, because his best friend, Lucy, flew in from Chicago and was there, as well as her mom, Becky, who drove down from Dillon. So here's all of us with handsome, Tuxedo-clad Chase!

Since we were in town, what the heck, we got tickets for BYU's football game the next day. Collin, Tiffany, and newly-turned 1-year-old Landon came down to Provo to hang with us for a bit, and go out to eat.

Problem was, I woke up Saturday morning throwing up, and with diarrhea. Flu, or food poisoning? I'm not really sure (I had Beef Bourguois the night before at Mimi's, and that's what was coming up - not that anyone really wanted that detail). I threw up 3 times in 4 hours. Gee, in 4 months of chemo I only threw up once, so whatever this was it was really potent. And then it was done. By noon I got up and took a shower, and we went out to dinner at 1:30 with Collin and Tiffany (I didn't eat all that much, and was careful about what I ate, but at least I ate something!).

The game was at 4:00, and I was not sure if I dare go and take a chance on trying to get by 15 people in our row to get to the bathroom if a little relapse occured. But I ended up going and did okay. But the burn pain started to really wear me down on the trip, and I was wishing that I had taken the doctor up on the pain pill offer. So when I got back to my next treatment on Monday, the next part of my BABY edition:

Part IV: BIG BABY: You got it - I ended up asking my doctor for some pain pills. After I filled the prescription, I went straight home (Okay, Stan and Brenda's home, but they made it feel like home) and took two of the pills and lay on the couch all afternoon. Unfortunately, I couldn't really tell if they did a lot. I think they may have been a little helpful sleeping at night, so after that first day, I only took them at bed time.

When my final Radiation appointment approached, Brenda had the family come over to her house for a little celebration party. Stan, Brenda, Russ, Maxine, Jordan, Ashley, Travis, Sarah, and Brad all came over with refreshments and celebrated (Jordan, Sarah & Brad missed the pic, and Travis was the photog.).

I had a little fun earlier in the day making 3 bouquets with a few flowers, but more heavy on candy, to give to Stan and Brenda and Russ and Maxine to thank them for their wonderful hospitality for the last 2 months. Thanks so much, you guys!

The third one was to give to the crew

at the Radiation Center in Idaho Falls. The card on the bouquet to them says: "Thanks to all of my Chefs - you did a great job of broiling me to a perfect, tender, Medium Well!"

So the big question is:

EXACTLY HOW MANY CHEFS DOES IT TAKE TO SPIT BROIL JUST ONE PIG?

Well, apparently, quite a few. And the group I have in this picture is just part of them. One of the Therapists, Melissa wasn't there, and there is also a Dosimatrist, and Physicist who plan the treatment. But this pic caught 3 of my Therapists, Bryna, June, and Nathan, as well as Beth, the nurse, the receptionist, and Dr. McAllister (in the green shirt). So, it really does take a lot of people to adequately fry just one pig. I left my scarf off for this pic - the bald, fuzzy head fits the Pig image better!

My final Radiation treatment was Friday, October 1. Once again Rich picked me up at the Radiation Center, and we left the truck in the parking lot there, and drove on to Cokeville, Wyoming to see our oldest grandson Tayler get baptised on Oct. 2. Wow, I can't believe Tayler is 8 years old now!

It was such a nice baptism. We spent all of Saturday in Cokeville, then headed back home Sunday morning. We had to stop in Idaho Falls and pick up the truck - which meant that I had to drive the car from I.F. to home. I had been worrying about that all weekend, cause the "Radiation Fatigue" they had been warning me about seemed to fully kick in. As soon a we headed out, with me following Rich's truck, I knew I was in trouble. I don't even know if sleepy is the right word for how I felt. Fuzzy and foggy would be a better description.

It was flat out scary. I had no business being on the road. I thought about pulling off at Roberts, but didn't. I couldn't keep up with Rich and lost him, and finally pulled off at Dubois. I called Rich, then just sat there. Rich turned around and came back. I tried to rest and de-fog my head. Then I walked around for awhile. Got back in the car and tried again. It was still awful. This time Rich followed me. I felt like everything was fuzzy and in slow motion. At times I was only going 40-45 mph (driving Rich crazy) as cars passed us by like we were standing still. I pulled off again at Lima. I was done. Couldn't go any further. Rich called his parents and asked them to come get the car, and I rode the rest of the way home with him. What a weird experience! Apparently the Radiation Fatigue finally kicked my butt! Pair that with the Anemia that I can't seem to shake, and I was pretty worthless.

The Radiation treatments are finally done. Other than the Herceptin IV's every 3 weeks (until March) my Cancer treatments are finished! Now I just need to wait patiently for the burned skin to heal, and for my red blood cell count to come back up to wipe out the Anemia, and the overall fatigue to ease up. I start teaching again Monday Oct. 18, and I must admit I'm a little worried about that. I just have no energy right now, and don't have a lot of time to get it back. But, the worst is over! I have my reconstruction surgery scheduled for Dec. 20. I'll post again in a few weeks with an update on how it's all going!