First Day of Radiation

In terms of how I'm feeling now it's mainly fatigue. That doesn't sound like much and only someone who's been through chemo can really understand it. My eyes are SO heavy and tired and I have a dull headache from morning till night when I fall asleep on the couch watching tv at 8:30/9:00. Someday this will go away, but for the next 8 weeks it will be difficult to determine how much it has to do with the chemo and how much it has to do with the radiation. However, my mind and body are SO ready to go. This weekend I went to the gym with all intentions of walking on the treadmill for 40 minutes since I thought it would be a good idea to go easy on my poor, abused joints and muscles. That lasted all of 7 minutes before I was running. I just can't wait to resume normal activity and it felt so good! Thankfully my joints held up to my slow pace and although my legs were very sore the next day, it was the good kind of sore. Me and my bald head even got a "good job" from the teenage girl next to me who was rocking a 7:40 min/mile pace. Bless her heart, it totally made me tear up and made my day.

Today I had back-to-back appointments - the first a post chemo check-up with the medical oncologist, the second my first dose of radiation with the radiation oncologist. My appointment with the med onc went well and my blood counts were all back to within normal range with the exception of being a hair low on potassium - he recommended a couple bananas. I got the official go ahead to resume eating things like soft cheeses and sushi. Yay! Who's my next lunch date?

Radiation went smoothly as well. I really like my radiation oncologist which makes me happy that I stuck with the hospital that I did. I had considered going back to the other hospital which is close to my work for logistics sake since treatments are daily for 6.5 wks, but since I wasn't crazy about the rad onc that I'd met at the other facility I decided to just stick with the same hospital as my med onc. Another benefit of this hospital is that since they treat ~1/3 fewer patients than the other hospital, getting an appointment isn't a huge cluster fuck. Getting a radiation treatment is fast, painless, and no more blood draws. Of course it's the same standard medical answer regarding when the skin burn will begin or when I will start to feel the added fatigue - "everyone is different" - my rad onc says those things will probably start to happen by the third week.

My first week of work went well and I managed to get in 20 hours of work despite a whirlwind of doctors appointments. Now that I'm starting radiation daily my time at the hospital will still be crazy, but I'm excited to get into a routine with my new work/hospital schedule and just get this all over with. My new schedule will be to drop Nash off at school, start work around 8:30, go get zapped at 1:30, go to the gym or run on the greenbelt, and then pick up Nash at 3:30. Part of me feels a little guilty because I could technically get in another 30 minutes to an hour of work, but I intentionally carved out the extra time for me to exercise. Light exercise or walking if I'm really spent. A little bit of exercise is probably the best thing to combat my fatigue. On top of that, I just plain deserve some "me time" to exercise as I continue with my emotional, mental, and physical healing.