Well, it is nice to have the radiation treatments over with and no longer have to run to the hospital every day. However, I think they must have given me a supercharge on the last day because the past couple days have left me feeling a bit more loopy than usual where I have to really concentrate my focus more than I had before. It hasn't stopped me from doing anything, but it takes a bit more effort to stay in tune with my environment. They said the effects of the radiation were cumulative and so I could be feeling a little off for another couple of weeks. I'm hoping it won't last that long.
I also just developed a bit of a burn along my forehead and the base of my skull from the radiation. They said this was a possibility. It is very similar to a sunburn, red in color and sensitive to the touch. My wig specialist, Lori, recommended neosporin with pain reliever and that seems to alleviate any discomfort pretty well.
My right hand is still really shaky so I'm still at the higher dosage of steroids. The doctors are hoping once the inflammation from the radiation subsides so will that shaking. (I'm crossing my shaky fingers that is the case!) In the meantime, the steroids tend to make me wake up for at least an hour or so in the middle of the night. I'll be glad when I can cut back on them.
I was still at the hospital anyway yesterday to get about 10 small vials of blood drawn. Since I am willing to attack this cancer on a variety of fronts, a naturopathic doctor named Dr. Rubin from Arizona is working with me and wanted to get about eight different tests done on my blood to identify why my body's immune system didn't fight off this cancer. A lot of these tests are not well known so my primary doctor, who had to order the tests, had to do quite a bit of research before she could even get the tests ordered. It will probably take a week to ten days to get the results back since a lot of analysis is being done in places like Mayo Clinic. Dr. Rubin also has me keeping a food journal for about 5 days and once we have all this information collected, will have some ideas to share about what I can do on the nutrition front to beat the cancer.
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