Day Before Last Chemo and Radiation Schedule

I am definitely fighting a mild cold, so there were no bike rides this weekend on my "good days." Best I could do was a hike and walk around the block. We also hosted a small birthday party for Reese, both she and Nash had a very good time. Praying that my blood counts are good enough tomorrow to get this over with, though I imagine I'll probably have this cold for the next couple weeks after I get knocked back down again. My body is so ready for this to be over with. I'm so fatigued and my muscles are so weak. My skin and lips are so dry - over the last week I've been drinking more water than I have my entire life, several days I've got 100 ounces down which is a LOT of water for someone my size, and yet my skin is still so dry. My lips feel like I haven't drank in days and yesterday I put some makeup on my face to try to hide the bags under my eyes for Reese's party and I couldn't wait to take it off and slather on moisturizer when the last guests left as the makeup made it feel even more dry. On top of that Ryan and I went out for my favorite Thai food on Saturday night and ever since I've been a puffy mess. I really do look like hell.

Here's an update on the radiation schedule. Last week I had my first appointment with the radiation oncologist, whom I really liked. Not that I'm excited about more abuse, but I'm excited to get this all over with. I'm also financially driven to get this all over with in 2014. Although I'm thankful for my insurance - without it I suspect the total bill would have been around $300K-$400K - we still have a high-deductible healthcare plan that has cost us plenty of money. Cancer treatments are insanely expensive and I bet I could meet the maximum out-of-pocket amount in a week, which would double the cost for us. That would be so depressing and I'd much rather spend that money doing good things with my family next year. After I finish chemo there are 9.5 weeks left in the year, with 6.5 weeks of radiation. The radiation oncologist prefers that patients recover for at least a month before starting radiation, but she understood my request and agreed to starting after just 3 weeks. The biggest short-term side effects (I won't mention the rare, but possible, long-term side effects) with radiation is a wicked burn on my shrunken breast and fatigue, though my doctor told me that usually her patients who haven't gone through chemo complain most about the fatigue. Apparently chemo patients have actually commented that they feel more energized during radiation, which is not actually the case but it's just that the chemo is finally starting to get out of the body. She explained it like you're running at 50% on chemo and that by the time radiation starts you might be at 70%, but nothing will ever bump you back down to 50%. I can only hope this is the case and that being at 70% will feel good.

So assuming chemo goes as planned tomorrow, I will start radiation on November 17 and end on December 31. Happy New Year to me, right? I'll go in 5 days/wk which leaves us trapped here in Boise for the holidays. Thankfully we will have my parents here for a week at Thanksgiving and my in-laws here again for Christmas to keep us company and help out.