Winters here and I want some hot chocolate...with whipped cream!

Hello lovely ladies and gorgeous gents! I hope all had a lovely Thanksgiving! Mine was really very good, no complaints! Made out like it was xmas! Got lots of black friday clothes sales and basically xmas for me is over except for the food lol.

I met up with my oncologist today. Bummer news is that he has added another week to the plan. So, instead of having 2 weeks of radiation I now get 3. Lucky me! I understand his thinking though. And I actually understand now, kind of how their measuring it. At 3 weeks, it's 30 gray ("an extra 10 gray because i guess it's 2 gray each treatment so an extra week tacks on the extra 10). some more studies and research had come out since the last time i talked to him, more debating over whats better 20 or 30 gray. I guess the debate keeps going back and forth. But for 20 gray treatment, there's only 4 years of data on post treatments patients and in the overall scheme of things 4 years is a short amount of time to base a lifetime on. So better to err on the side of caution and add the extra week on. It's refreshing to know (or well actually hear) that he is constantly researching and studying reports and studies that are published and keeping on top of things. Apparently, as he told me, whether to give me 2 or 3 weeks kept him awake at nights trying to make the decision. I feel loved :) I'm pretty impressed with him! Kind of a bummer though, my company holiday party is on teh 14th (end of week 2) and I probably shouldn't be drinking, but he said he's not going to tell me not to but limit it to one or two. Just listen to my body and how it's feeling. I'll finish up on Dec 21st and fly out back down to MS early morning on the 22nd. good xmas present yah?!

I am happy and thankful to report, my hair is filling in yay!!! I got it trimmed up on Tuesday. Didn't have any product with me till today so it was a bit poofy the last few days lol. But I noticed today that it's fillin in more and more, i'm very happy! Sad that my hair can make me that happy. But it does! ;)

My quick training trip to Philly was fun. I'll probably have to go through another week in January here in teh ny office, but still was a good time. And I stayed at The Sofitel. Oh My Gosh this is one of the best hotels if not the best hotel i have ever stayed at ! Huge bed with feather bed and comforter, it was like sleeping on a / in a cloud! A seperate shower right next to the tub, huge bathroom, bathrobes. Great place! Glad I didn't pay for it! And had dinner with the group at Fogo de Chao a Brazilian steakhouse. So much meat flyin around that place! If you're a vegetarian DO NOT go there!! They had a $635 Remy Martin cognac (i think it was remy) but it was for an ounce of it. That's some expensive stuff!! We joked about how much just a taste would cost! lol

so Monday i start with the rads and before ya know it, it'll be xmas and I'll be done!!

Hope everyone has a great December!

san

When the glow begins!

I checked back in with the radiation oncologist on Friday. Got all their cat scans out of the way. Layed down in a weird bean bagish thing, the size of a (if you have pets you'll get this) a wee wee pad lol. Then it kind of inflated around me and made a mold of my neck and head and shoulder area. Very weird. I kept getting slight adjustments that lined me up in the crosshairs of these red beams (kind of like the ones that read barcodes). Once all lined up they marked on me with a blue sharpy with x's. Then once they made sure those were all in the right place, I got tattooed. Yep thats right another 5 tats to add to the on i had. These however are about the size of a freckle.Oh and I might add, old school tats lol. The technician took a needle and a little cap full of ink and then dipped and then poked me in the center of the "x" So now I have three black dots one in the center of my upper chest, one at my sternum and one an inch above my belly button. Then also I have one on my left side (litterally the side of my body) and one on my right. So now they line up the dots with the red beams o' light and make sure I'm all lined up. Then I'm supposed to hold my chin up but I keep dropping it, I now get to have tape running from the side of the head rest under my chin to the other side to keep it up and out of the way. I'm sure I look fabulous while lying down there. I'll go back on Nov 30th for more films that they need and then on Dec 3 start gettin radiation. The good news is that ( as long as all goes well and nothing changes accept in a good way) I only have to have 10 treatments and at a very low grade of radiation (20grey/gray not sure which way they spell it) not so good news is that it's going to go farther up my neck then originally thought. Apparently it was nodes further up in my neck above the supraclavical ones so my saliva glands are gonna get some rads but hopefully since it's a low dosage it wont' affect them.

I then went to the dentist on Saturday. That was quite the adventure. The normal way to get in was shut down because their elevator didn't work. I went to the address that was left on the note on the door and the security/door woman didn't know there was a dentist office upon the 5th floor. So I went up but couldn't figure out where anything was. Just a kidn of hallway, but all in a nice dark wood. Normally there's people sitting behind a desk right infront of the elevators I guess to direct you to which door but they weren't there. So I headed back down stairs and went outside,called ifnormation , got the number to my dentist office and asked how I get in. I was right but just didn't venture forward on the 5th floor to really figure it out. The lady on the phone said she put signs up, but really you had to walk down the hall to the end then know to turn right and follow another hall before you even saw her signs. She should've put them out right when you got off the elevator. But as soon as I turnd the corner she appeared. She figured if she didn't see me in a few minutes she would hunt me down and come to the rescue. But good thing i was early!
The actual visit was interesting. I got to have a device that I had never had before. It's like a little sandblaster that removes staining of the teeth, but it creates a huge mess. It shoot water too and the little suction thing wasn't in the right spot so the water dripped out down my neck and the back of my shirt was all wet. Not to mention when she was done I had sand all over my face and neck. It felt like I had taken a nose dive on a sandy beach! She looked at the back of my shirt and said oh it's all wet, but you have a coat so you'll be ok lol. Not like I really wanted to be all wet after leaving a dentists office. I do have a cavity that needs filling, on my front tooth of all places. How crazy is that. But the dentist said it can wait till january once I'm all done with radiation. She kind of chuckled when I told her I was having 10 days and at 20 grey. I guess she was thinking i was going to get like 3 months, does make a big difference. After hearing that she wasn't too concerned about the time period in which to get the filling done by. But then she says she wants to crown a couple other teeth because , they have already been filled years ago, and are all full of silver but the pressure of chewing and grinding will eventually cause the teeth to fracture. Not that I want that to happen, but I don't think my dental insurance is gonna cover crowning as a preimptive measure but I'll have to check it out. Not that I really want either to happen. I hate hate hate hate hate having dental work done. I think after I had braces. for a second time, I would be used to it, but, nope, I hate it still and never get used to it.

So there were my adventures that started off the weekend. I did watch a couple movies, Mr Brooks and Ratatouille. Mr Brooks was ok, Ratatouille was cute.
Other than that not much else to report. Hopefully will be a nice calm and quiet short work week!!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

That special glow

Well kids, the verdict is in and it looks as though I will be getting radiation. I met with Dr Shah, the radiation oncologist. Wow such a nice guy. Young,nice, seemed very knowledgable, meticulous,accessible, personable, on top of everything. Gave me lots of info but even said you probably will only retain 40-60% of this lol. I did even take some notes. For example the stats for secondary cancer that he gave me were .5% per every year of life after radiation. So If you're 5 years out of radiation the percentage of developing a secondary cancer from radiation is 2.5%. Now, these are based on patients who were treated 10-20 years ago. 10-20 years ago the radiation dosages were much larger then they are now, so theoretically the actuall .5% should be lower since they use lower dosages now, and they are more precise (down to teh millimeter). So I feel very confident in Dr Shah. He said treatment would probably be 10-17 days. I go back on Thursday for their CatScan and the tattooing of the target spots and will find out exactly how many days I will go through then. But with Thanksgiving and me going out of town for that and for xmas its' gonna be fun. Looks like I'll get back from Thanksgiving down south then go to Philly for the 28th and 29th and then start radiation on the 30th and go (possible if 17days) straight to Dec 21 (with a saturday thrown in most likely dec 1) and then leave to go back down south on Dec 22. Time is gonna fly by!
So there's the update. Like I think I said previously, i look at it like a second line of defense!
Hope everyone has a great week!

The waiting game

Hello folks of all ages and sizes.
I know some of you have been a' clammerin for my blog posts so here ya go! I can't keep my adoring fans waiting anymore haha.
Since we last spoke (ok well since I last posted) what has been going on?? Not much really. I went back to the onoclogist. Blood counts pretty normal, slightly enemic but not enough to give me a procrit shot. But boy did Jeri want to lol. She always likes to inflict pain upon me. I scheduled my radiation oncology appointment. That will take place monday nov 12 at 11:30 and then at 2 I'll head back over to Dr G (oncologist) and I guess fill him in on what happened, though i'm sure Dr Shah the radialogist will send him his opinion as well. Dr G seems to think that Shah will say yes to radiation. Ya know, not that i have any overwhelming desires to go do it, but it is what it is, and you do what you gotta do. To me, I think of it more like a second line of defense if I have to have it. So we'll chat about long term side effects and all that fun stuff.
So really not much else happening. Just going to work and going home. Some laundry occassionally and lots of tv. I'm addicted to the tv these days. Although with the writers strike I may not be very soon.
Hope everyone is well. Take care of yourselves as tis now the cold/flu season! bundle up if your in cooler parts of the nation! Anyone ever been to Portland OR or Seattle WA?
ciao for now!