Rosie's Cancer Journey

I want to begin my post by acknowledging my mom’s passing. She passed away a day after my last post. I’m not feeling up to writing about that here today.

But I do have good news to share. Since May 5th, I have been driving from Monroe to Capitol Hill every weekday afternoon for radiation treatment. I had sixteen sessions and today was my last one. I graduated!

I change into a gown. Then they put me in a room and I lay down on my back on a table. Two large ceiling above my head have a photo of cherry blossoms and clouds, like this:

My brain turns one image of a cloud in the tile into a picture of my mom, which is strange. I almost wanted to take a photo of it to see if anyone else saw it.

The tech announces through a speaker, ” Take a breath…. Hold…” And 20 seconds later, “You can breathe.” This happens about six times as the machine moves around me. And then the machine goes back into place, the table moves back into place, and I’m done.

My experience with radiation has been fine. There have been a couple of days where I took long naps or felt more tired, but nothing compared to what chemo did to me. My skin is pink on my left side but no peeling or pain. My radiation oncologist told me today that the worst might hit in two weeks – peeling skin and fatigue – but then should improve. All in all, I was able to tolerate this treatment well.

I still have infusions every three weeks until November. I meet with my oncologist before every other infusion appointment. I don’t have any side effects from these infusions, so the worst is behind me.