Radiation Oncologist

Yesterday, George and I went to meet my radiation oncologist for the first time. He is a really nice doctor who spent a lot of time with us and answered all of our questions. Like why I need radiation. Basically, the chemo goes throughout your entire body and kills rapid growing cells which come in the form of cancer or hair cells or cells in your stomach. Radiation kills any left over cancer cells in the specific area where my cancer was. I will be getting radiation from my clavicle bone down my right side chest and under my arm pit where my lymph nodes were.

The part that is really going to suck is that I have to go every single day for 6.5 weeks. It will just feel like a waste of time because I only get radiation for about 5 minutes. So it will take longer for me to drive there, undress, get on the table, get off the table, get dressed and drive to work then the treatment actually takes. BUT if its going to keep me cancer free then I'm happy with it.

The other thing we found out yesterday is what stage my cancer is. Yes its been 6 months since my surgery and I never asked. To be honest, I never really wanted to know. I knew for sure I wasn't stage 1 and I always just assumed from what I read that I am stage 2A. But I am actually stage 3A. I was pretty shocked when my doctor told me. Stage 3 sounds so much scarier than stage 2. But once we left the office and I had a chance to really think about it, it doesn't really matter. I'm in the middle of this battle and whether I'm stage 1 or stage 3, I want to do everything I can to make sure that this stupid cancer go away forever. The scariest thing about this whole thing for me is that its been living in my body for maybe YEARS completely undetected. The other scary thing is that the tiny little lump spread and ended up in my lymph nodes. So now, even though its going to be a very annoying and long 6.5 weeks, I'm glad that I have this extra treatment to make sure every tiny little cancer cell is out of my body.

My radiation oncologist told me that the side effects I will feel from radiation will likely start about half way through. He told me that I would definitely feel fatigue and that I would probably have some skin problems where the radiation is. I'm hoping that I'm one of the lucky ones who gets zero or little skin irritation but I'll continue to expect the worst and hope for the best! I will probably start radiation in about 3 weeks. Next week I have a CT scan that they use to map out where exactly the radiation will go AND I will get my tiny little tattoos. Not quite the tattoo I thought I'd be getting but at least they're just little dots!

Today marks 3 weeks since my last chemo and I am SO happy that I did not have to have chemo today! I am feeling so great. AND I finally got to go get my nails done!! Wahoo!!

Tomorrow I have a follow up appointment with my surgeon. I can't believe its been 6 months since my surgery. Its hard to believe how much has changed since I saw this doctor last. Actually its hard to believe how much has changed since I saw this doctor for the first time! Its been 8 months since then.

I can't wait for June to be here and to be done with all treatments and to try to put this all behind me. I really, really, really hate cancer and I cannot wait for SOMEONE to find a cure SOON!