Getting Ready For Radiation

I know it has been a long time since I have posted an update on my health. There hasn't been much to write about since my last chemo and starting the drug study. The nausea from the bone strengthening medicine has decreased. That is good news. I still feel it occasionally throughout the day but it only lasts for a short period of time. I am still not feeling very well in the evenings. By the time the kids get home from school most of my energy is gone. I try to take a nap when I am tired but I am having a hard time getting to sleep both during the day and at night. The weather in Utah keeps changing from warm to cold and back to warm again. When it changes it makes my bones ache more. My arms and legs hurt the most at night. I have a TENS, Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation machine that my foot doctor gave me that helps a little. It works by using an pulsing electrical current to block the pain signal from traveling to the brain and to stimulate the body's own natural pain-control mechanisms, endorphins. It helps when I am using it but I can only use it for 30 minutes at a time and on two small areas at a time. Once I take it off the ache usually returns after a while. David is wonderful to rub my legs, feet, and arms to help me get to sleep. That seems to be what helps the most.

Yesterday I went to Ogden Regional Hospital for a CT scan so that they can plan my radiation treatment. I am hoping to start on Monday, October 27th but I am still waiting for a call from the hospital to schedule that appointment. Yesterday all they did was put 5 dots with a permanent marker in an upside down T shape, 3 down my sternum and one on each side about half way down my ribs. These marks helped the nurse line up the machine and will help them line it up again on Monday. Before I left they put bandaids over the marks and told me not to wash them off until I come back again and they can replace them with permanent tattoo dots. I have never had any desire to get a tattoo before but I will soon be able to say I have 5 or 6 of them. My nurse said that they will be so small that most people don't even notice them. The marks will help them to line up the radiation machines each time so that they hit the specific area that they want and to hit as little of the surrounding organs as possible.

The CT room was cold. Somebody forgot to tell the maintenance people at the hospital to turn the cool air off. Also whoever designed the room wasn't very bright. The cool air blows out of a vent in the wall that directly faces the CT machine so that it is blowing right on the patient as they are getting their scan of their bare skin. The scan only took about 10 minutes. The uncomfortable part is having to keep my arms above my head for the whole time. Even though I could rest them on the table it isn't a position I would usually lay in. That is most likely the same position that they will use for the radiation treatments which will be 5 days a week for 6 weeks. I should finish sometime around the 8th or 9th of December depending on how much time they take off for Thanksgiving. The nurse said that last year some of the patients came in early on Thanksgiving day to still have their treatment. The most common side effect of radiation is a small burn like a sunburn and some fatigue. It is the fatigue from chemo and the emotional fatigue from Shawn being sick again that is starting to wear on me. I know that I still have a lot less fatigue than most patients who have been through chemo but it is frustrating to me on how little I get done each day.

I am still spending a lot of time running Shawn to appointments or picking him up from school when he can't make it the whole day. His headache is now going on about 5 weeks. I don't know why his body seems to hold onto pain, whether is is his stomach or his head, once the pain starts his body just doesn't seem to know how to turn it off. We have tried everything we can think of. I am currently waiting for the neurologist to call me back for an appointment. Last week I took him on Monday to the massage therapist, the chiropractor, and a regular doctor in case it was a sinus infection. On Tuesday we went to the acupuncturist and a homeopathic therapist on Wednesday. Most things help relieve some of the pain but nothing has gotten rid of it totally. The massage therapist and the homeopathic therapist are two new angels in our lives. I know that Heavenly Father is aware of Shawn's pain and has led us to them to help him. I didn't even know either of them before Shawn's headache started. Both of them made time in their schedules to work on him the same day that they heard about us. Judy, the message therapist, worked on him for the first time only days before her son's wedding. She spend over an hour and a half that she could have used getting ready for the wedding working on Shawn's muscles. Then when he was still in pain she set up a meeting with the man who taught her, he is retired now, to work on Shawn the day before the wedding. Ray spent over 2 hours helping Shawn and wouldn't let us pay him anything. He is another angel to us. Over the last year my eyes have been opened to the many acts of service that so many people do to help those around them. I firmly believe in the philosophy of "paying if forward" which means that when someone helps you, you can repay them by helping someone else in need. We don't need to wait for someone to help us, when we see someone who needs something that you can help with, help them. By doing this we can make the world a better place and ease each other's burdens. We will never know what a big difference one small act of kindness can make in some one's life. The Savior said "If you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me."

P.S. The two dogs we found last week showed up again yesterday. I had to call Nel to come pick them up again. I hope they don't make this a habit.