Radiation Treatment Done

Eventually the Hero hits the end of the road, his quest completed, and has to go back to his life in the real world. He leaves his mentors behind, he thanks those who have helped him on the way and he goes back to his village to lead a quiet and peaceful life...at least in theory.

Today marked the end of my cancer treatment. I'll have a few follow-up appointments in the coming months, but no one, including me, expects these to be anything but routine. Twenty-five radiation treatments are behind me and overall I've tolerated them well. I have a red, dry rash on the left side of my neck and my left armpit is very sore and angry looking. The rest of the treated area looks like I fell asleep in the sun. I have creams and gels to use to treat the area and I'll have to be very careful with sun exposure in the future...no topless beaches for me.

Now I just have to get on with the act of living a healthy lifestyle...exercise, healthy eating, lots of rest. Doctor's orders. I've been trying to walk four or five days a week, for at least 30 minutes. It was pretty easy the last week or so with the beautiful weather.

I took in a big tray of ginger cookies to the radiology team as a thank you. I don't know how they do their job so cheerfully every day. While I wasn't the youngest person receiving treatment I was in the younger third of those in the waiting room. They regularly deal with older people who become quite debiliated by the treatment and whose skin gets much worse-looking than mine. I was being set up for the second blast when one of the techs came in and said how wonderful the cookies are. It's kind of funny...the recipe for them came out of an old IWK cookbook I've had for years.

Rob and I went out for supper to celebrate, nothing fancy, just my favorite bruschetta pizza at Boston Pizza which we followed up with some Christmas shopping.

I'm just glad to have all the treatment behind me in time to focus on getting ready for Christmas. I've got my outdoor lights up and the greenery I put up around the railing.

The next phase -- our poor hero never gets to rest, that's why all good fantasy writers put out sequels -- is all elective. I say it is elective, but in my mind what comes next is as essential as the treatment I've just completed. I'm still waiting for a date for my hysterectomy and of course reconstruction won't happen until next spring/summer (I won't even have a follow-up with the plastic surgeon for six months.)

I'm glad to have this behind me. And I thank all of you who followed my blog with great regularity, who sent me cards and gifts, who said prayers or sent positive energy.

This isn't the end of my blogging, but I won't be making updates unless there is a change or new information to add. I do plan to do up a tally...how many visits to the hospital, parking costs, medication costs etc.