Are We There Yet????

Its Wednesday!!!! That means I have 7 days of radiation treatment left!!!! 7 days of filling in my day with stuff till I have to drive down and spend half an hour with my big friendly machine. 7 days and my time is back to being my own. Auspiciously, my last day of treatment coincides with our granddaughter Lilly's 1st birthday! 30 treatments done and dusted.

As usual, I don't do things easily. This last treatment will deliver the highest boost of radiation that they can give me, to the breast and armpit. Then they come in, reposition my arms down by my side, strap my Hannibal Lecter mask on and pin me to the table and give the node in my neck the largest dose as well.

My skin has held up very well considering most people end up with nasty burns, sometimes blistering.  It is tingly like when you first get a sunburn, up until last week, the scar site would ache as would my armpit (those pesky nodes). I now spend longer in the bathroom applying 4 different creams to the area to avoid the nasty burning issues, and come out looking like I've been plastered with zinc cream. But worth the effort if I can avoid the worst of it.

HAIR HAIR EVERYWHERE!!!   I have now got a full coverage of hair about 0.5 cm long along with some fine wispy baby fluff about 1.5cm. The male pattern baldness area has been the last to cover in, but I'm ready I think, that by the start of next week, I'll walk down the street without a hat or scarf.... I am SOOOOOO over hats and scarves. The wig was never my thing and now a hat just makes my head itch.  But the down side????? I have to shave my legs again and I have discovered that those bloody hormonal hairs are back!!! Son of a b!tch chemo... could you not have kept those! I still don't have armpit hair, I do have lovely dark eyebrows again, I don't have nasal hair, I do have my lady hairs, but for the love of god, could you not have kept the odd chin and moustache hair.... sigh.....

So before we rejoice and think I'm back to normal, unfortunately we still have some side effects from the lovely chemo, and also radiation fatigue has well and truly kicked in. With the chemo, my nails are still trying to repair themselves and 10 weeks post chemo one nail has decided to turn blackish. Toenails are still a mess, and I'm still not sure I won't lose one of the big ones. My legs have finally stopped aching and I'm starting to walk more. Standing is still an issue, so bum on chair happens a fair bit. My tastebuds while improved, still leave me with an unpleasant aftertaste half to and hour later, even to the point of nausea. I can't stand the smell of bread cooking!!???  Somethings I still can't bear to go near. Cups of tea are a right off, I usually only drink 1/3 of a cup of coffee, my sweet tooth has taken a beating, biscuits are terrible. Chocolate and sweets, nope. All of these really are a good thing, as I still need to lose more weight for the doctors to be happy for my long term health (despite losing about 8 kilos all up so far). But my brain still wants a sweet after a meal. I guess I have to get used to being a savoury tooth now... after 50 years of one habit, it's going to take some time to get used to a new one.

The radiation to my neck has left me with a constant sore throat with a golf ball inside making swallowing interesting. The doctor keeps asking if I'd like some painkillers to help, but I told him I just need to learn to put less in my mouth and chew my food properly! He thought that was funny. I just don't want to take any more pills.

I'm working on healing my gut. I've got my probiotics, I'm taking charcoal tablets to help get rid of the toxins, and my lovely boss/gp told me the other day that I'm looking the best I have for a long time. That really made my day.  Now if I could just get through the day without a 2 hour "nap" and stay awake longer than 8.30pm, I'd be happy.  Can't have it all though....... just yet!