I am sitting here, just finished up with my 10th radiation session. I have successfully completed two weeks of radiation. The goal was to get back to work 3 half days per week, I have not been able to successfully do that yet but I have been able to physically get into work more so that is a plus in my eyes. Day one of radiation was rough, I didn't feel good and didn't think to take my nausea medication. I literally felt like my uterus was dying, which I guess, in a way, it is. If I weren't already in menopause from the chemo radiation is throwing me full force into it. I, however, had already started menopause this summer. Once I realized I should take my nausea medication things got better. My worst symptom so far with radiation and Cistplatin is the same as with my other chemo, I feel tired the majority of the time. I also have what I can only describe as achy hips.
I met with the radiation/oncologist on Monday this week. He said he had spent a lot of time with my scans and was able to explain them in more detail. Basically the ideal situation would have been if the tumor shrank down in one piece, just getting smaller. However, my tumor shrank down and broke apart into pieces. What this means for radiation is that we can't do the megadose of radiation targeted at one specific tumor. This means we have to do broad radiation and in five weeks we will do another scan to see what the next steps are. This was sort of deflating news, we were hoping that we would be able to do a megadose on one tumor but we will work with what we've got.
This week I got a call on Tuesday that chemo was still scheduled for Wednesday but that we would have to re-run my bloodwork because my white blood count was too low. When I got to chemo on Wednesday we re-ran the bloodwork and found out that I was neutropenic and wouldn't be able to get chemo this week. I also talked to the nurse and we doubled the hormone I take (HRT), because the radiation has stopped what level of function my ovaries were doing and the hot flashes and night sweats were back. Hopefully within the next two weeks the hormone will be doing its job.
Back to the low white blood count, my nurse explained that most of our white blood cells are developed in the large hip bones which are now being radiated. Basically my body isn't producing white blood cells fast enough to keep up. So, the first thing to go is chemo. I had to skip chemo this week with the hopes of doing it again next week. In the mean time, I have to limit going into public, wear a mask, and all that fun sort of stuff.
Today is Halloween, I am getting dressed up and can't wait to take Wylee out trick-or-treating. I will just take my mask and stay away from the herds of children. Wylee is a ninja turtle, we did some local family trick-or-treating yesterday.
I met with the radiation/oncologist on Monday this week. He said he had spent a lot of time with my scans and was able to explain them in more detail. Basically the ideal situation would have been if the tumor shrank down in one piece, just getting smaller. However, my tumor shrank down and broke apart into pieces. What this means for radiation is that we can't do the megadose of radiation targeted at one specific tumor. This means we have to do broad radiation and in five weeks we will do another scan to see what the next steps are. This was sort of deflating news, we were hoping that we would be able to do a megadose on one tumor but we will work with what we've got.
This week I got a call on Tuesday that chemo was still scheduled for Wednesday but that we would have to re-run my bloodwork because my white blood count was too low. When I got to chemo on Wednesday we re-ran the bloodwork and found out that I was neutropenic and wouldn't be able to get chemo this week. I also talked to the nurse and we doubled the hormone I take (HRT), because the radiation has stopped what level of function my ovaries were doing and the hot flashes and night sweats were back. Hopefully within the next two weeks the hormone will be doing its job.
Back to the low white blood count, my nurse explained that most of our white blood cells are developed in the large hip bones which are now being radiated. Basically my body isn't producing white blood cells fast enough to keep up. So, the first thing to go is chemo. I had to skip chemo this week with the hopes of doing it again next week. In the mean time, I have to limit going into public, wear a mask, and all that fun sort of stuff.
Today is Halloween, I am getting dressed up and can't wait to take Wylee out trick-or-treating. I will just take my mask and stay away from the herds of children. Wylee is a ninja turtle, we did some local family trick-or-treating yesterday.
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