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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Done with Radiation!!




I just finished my ten days of radiation on Monday the 17th. So far my only side effects are a rectangular "suntan" on my chest (we radiated my sternum) and some esophagitis (did I spell that right?). My esophagus hurts at the bottom where it attaches to the stomach. I think this is from the radiation we did to my upper spine--they said it could burn the esophagus. The worst of it should be over by the end of this week. So I'm done with radiation until something else begins to hurt--which hopefully is far off! The radiation is mainly to relieve pain in my bones--or to kill a spot of cancer in a bone that looks like it could break. We can't radiate my ribs, though, since they're so small. It felt like I broke another one in my upper right chest over the weekend. But with time the pain gets better. The woman in the photo with me was one of my radiation buddies, Bodell (I'm not sure I spelled her name right).

Currently I feel pretty good and can move a lot faster. I'm thinking I'll try walking for exercise again (no more running). I'm usually pretty tired by the end of the day, and my back will ache or my ribs will hurt. It's still hard to bend over to pick things up or to put pants on, but it's getting better--and it's nothing like the pain I was in at the beginning of December. Every day is better.

I met with my oncologist, Dr. Sandra Buys yesterday and recieved my second shot of Lupron to shut my ovaries down. I get this once a month so I can take Femara, a drug that fights the cancer growth. It works only in post-menopausal women, so that's why I have to get the shot. We also set my next date to get the IV of Zometa, the bone-strengthening drug for Jan. 11th. This is the drug that I had such a bad reaction to at the first of December when I went into the hospital. We're hoping to have a better go of it this next time around. I asked Dr. Buys to move the date into January so I could enjoy the Christmas and New Years break with my family.

We are so amazed at the kindness and generosity of our family and friends!! We have recieved so much!! We have recieved help with meals, house cleaning, help driving me to all my appointments, Christmas shopping, and more. A good neighbor planned and paid for Joe's birthday party last week (which was so fun--Joe loved it). Some friends of ours also suprised us Saturday with a new bed for me--one that has a remote control and lifts/lowers your back or your legs and has MASSAGE!! No more sleeping in the recliner!! We are blown away with how we have been blessed and loved by everyone!! We love you all!!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jenn, The love you are feeling from everyone is just a reflection of all the love and blessings you have given to all who know you. We love you and look forward to seeing you soon. Linda and Curt