Lucky #8

What a whirlwind of a day. Doctor's appointments, shopping and teaching. In that exact order.

Great news: I met with the lymphedema physical therapist for the first time in over a month. She was thrilled to see that my arm looks normal and has been holding steady for four weeks now. The proof is in the measurements, however, and I was eager to see what the percentage decrease would be.

When we first met in June, my right arm was 14.4% larger than the left. Then, I had a horrible reaction to the heated yoga room and it ballooned up to 21.9%. Simply gross. It took another month to get it down to 14% at our last meeting on July 27th.

Today, it is only 8%!! And, that is a 42% reduction in the size of my arm itself. Hello wrist bone! Hello elbow! Goodbye Popeye forearm! I think I may be able to wear jewelry on my right hand and wrist again after all. What a relief. I still have to wear a sleeve during the day and sleep in the night sleeve each night but, I will wean off of it after radiation and hopefully only have to wear a sleeve to workout.

Anyways.....

I promptly zoomed over to Nordstrom and put that newly svelte right arm and hand into action signing credit card slips. I lucked out and found some cute walking shoes for Australia, along with some Sanctuary shorts: all on sale. I need to be prepared for my trip, right?

Onto Radiation Oncology for full area treatment and new scans for the final 8 treatments. I have just one "full area" radiation left tomorrow. Thank goodness as my underarm is now officially raw and blistered.

Next, Dr. L came in and drew a circle around my incision and the assistant put wire around it, which felt very strange. The assistant then stuffed me into the CT-Scanner machine again so they could photograph the wired section of boob. The final eight treatments will be directed solely to this specific tumor bed area.

In addition to the CT-Scan photos, they once again took photos with a regular camera. Snapshots of me lying on my side, with a robe half-on, wire around my magic-markered breast cancer scar. I find these very odd. All I can say, is that once this blog is published as a book those photos better not surface on the internet.

I have a reputation to uphold.

Birthday Eve

Birthday Eve
Thanks for all the encouraging comments!

Do you know those days where you are running from place to place, always about 5 minutes late for each appointment? I had one of those frenetic days today for the first time that I can recall. They used to be a mainstay of my life and I must say that I do not miss the madness.

I won't bore you with all the details but, I must rant about my ridiculous morning at Scripps. I reported in to Radiation Oncology at 9am for my radiation and repeat CT-Scan. Yes, repeat CT-Scan. Apparently, the one that was taken the day I was tattooed turned out strangely. Two techs ask me if I'd been panting during the scan. Panting. My bafflement must have shown because one lady actually panted like a dog to illustrate. I assured all of them that I hadn't been laying there, all magic markered and stickered up, panting.

Anyways, they told me to expect to be there for an hour. My lymphedema PT appointment was at 10am at the Scripps La Jolla location, about 5 minutes away. I could make that work. After the CT-Scan, however, the story changes and they tell me that it will be at least an hour before they'd have things set up for radiation. And, that I'd need to redo the x-rays from the day before because the parameters were all wrong from the CT-scan where I was allegedly panting. Well, what the heck did they radiate yesterday then?? If all the x-rays and CT-scan were wrong and needed redoing, should I be concerned?

Beyond concern, I was annoyed. They asked if I could come back, assuring me that they'd have me out of there in 10-15 minutes. I told them no, that I had appointments at 10am, class at 12pm, appointments at 2, 3:30 and 4:30pm. I'd come for my allotted hour and that wasn't enough?

Persistent creatures that they are, they asked if I could return for 10 to 15 minutes after my 10am PT appointment and assured me I'd be able to make it to Encinitas for my class at 12pm. So, I zoom over to Scripps La Jolla for PT. I cut my appointment thirty minutes short. Mind you, this is the second robe I've changed into by 10am.

I then run out of PT, hop in my car and drive back over to the parking lot from hell at Scripps Torrey Pines. For the second time, I battled octogenarians (sorry dad) who felt free to drive the wrong way up one-way lanes, lay on the horn while reversing up said lane in attempts to snag parking spaces. Madness. They need to sell extra insurance to traverse that lot.

I park. I lope back into the basement to Radiation. On goes Robe #3, accidentally ripping off Sheila in the process. I stuffed her back on my head, slightly askew, in my haste to get my radiation. Tick tock. 15 minutes elapse in the waiting area. It is now 11:33 and I need to be in Encinitas by 12pm. My agreement with these people was that I'd run back to them and they'd get me in and out in 15 minutes. My blood is starting to boil at this point.

I wasn't going to no-show my class so, I trotted back to shed Robe #3 and hightailed it out of there. I let the receptionist know that I had to leave and that I wasn't coming back for a third time today. I had to run back up the stairs, risk my life traversing the parking lot, and speed all the way to Encinitas and then try to calm myself down enough to teach class.

Wow, this is the non-detailed version.

The day improved from there. I went over to lululemon and got casted for keep-a breast foundation. Very interesting experience!

I'm really excited for tomorrow's trip to Laguna with Todd. It will start with an 8:30am radiation appointment. After that, it is celebration time!

p.s. photo of hair that fell out...missing it a lot!