September 4, 2005

Hi--
Tuesday was my last radiation session.  I made it to last Friday without a severe skin reaction.  But with two treatments to go, I started getting skin burns (I'm not sure they deserve to be called treatments--you don't feel anything when they are happening, and they didn't hurt the first 5 weeks, but now I don't think of them as much of a treat).  The worst part is under my arm, which is bright lobster red.  And it hurts!  I also have a large triangular-shaped burn area on my chest.  The underarm area is particularly tricky, because the skin there is constantly moving. The great thing is that in a couple weeks it will be all better.  Until then, loosely-fitting clothing is becoming my friend.  I usually wear sleeveless short shirts to my biking classes, but now I need to wear large tshirts so nothing is touching my armpit.  The trade-off is that I get too hot wearing that kind of shirt.  Oh well, this too shall pass.

My last day of radiation should have been a great day for me, but it was also the day I learned that a friend of mine has a recurrence of her breast cancer.  She had a small tumor removed almost 13 years ago, and now she has it back--stage 4.  The good news for her is that she is Her2 positive (when she first had cancer, they didn't test for that, and they didn't have Herceptin).  So she started yesterday on the same chemo meds that I was on.  It's always hard to hear that kind of news--it was bittersweet coming on the same day I was done with my radiation.  I stopped by her house on Thursday with some wigs for her to try, and we went online to buy her a wig.  I know how all of you felt when you dropped off dinners, gifts, etc. for me...you feel helpless because you can't take the disease away from your friend.  So you do anything you can to help, because it's all you can do.

Remember the 80-some page report that I wrote to convince my HMO to allow me to go out of plan to get the specific type of radiation I needed?  My radiation oncologist, Edie Krueger (who has become a good friend--she is a really terrific person), told me that because of my report, my health plan has referred other women to her who have cases similar to mine.  I'm glad about that--it feels wonderful to know that I have helped other women get the care they need.

I had planned to throw a big party this month to thank all the people who helped us during my treatments.  But it looks like we will wait at least a couple months.  We finally got the house next door on the market, and the time got away from us a bit.  So for now, all I can do is say thanks to all of you who stayed in touch with me and stopped over with a meal or sent a card.  I am really hoping that I will not be so much of a home body in 2006!!!

All the best to you all---
Val