Surprise!

I forgot to mention that today was my first appointment in over 6 months with my Radiation Oncologist, aka "The Zapper". They called me with the appointment about a month ago, so I kind of forgot about it, too. I was told that there would be four appointments before the first actual treatment, so I knew this would be more of a "meet and greet" session.

When we got there, I was reminded how much of a tedious process this is going to be. At this hospital, patients normally have to register every time they arrive. However, for radiation patients, you just register once at the beginning of each month. Luckily, the treatments are at a different campus of the hospital, which is approximately an 8 minute drive from my house (as opposed to the 10-12 minute drive to the other campus!). More importantly, it's directly on my way home from work. This is very convenient, since I'll need to be there 5 days a week for 6 and a half weeks.

So, anyway, we meet with The Zapper and she is very happy to see that I look a LOT better than she expected. She'd heard about an infection and more antibiotics (without realizing it was C-Diff, I believe)and was afraid that there would be infection at the expander site (but there is not). She also said she was impressed at how high I could lift my arms. We were SO happy to hear her say that. I want to make sure that I'm recovering well, and sometimes it's hard to get that kind of feedback.

One thing we weren't quite prepared for - she wants me to start right away. I didn't realize this, but they like to start radiation about 4 weeks after surgery. Well, this coming Wednesday is 3 weeks. Also, radiation involves "prep work" (which I'll describe later), and my body shape cannot drastically change in this time. This means that once the prep is done, we can no longer inflate the tissue expanders. Guess when she wanted to start prep work? Today! Those 4 preliminary appointments I talked about? Baloney. Or bologna.

I am very surprised that this is happening so soon, and I really wish we could have gotten that last fill in next week. When we talked to the plastic surgeon at our last appointment, we really thought we would be able to get at least one more fill in by the time radiation started. But what could I do? Obviously, the treatment is the most important thing we have to worry about.

Unfortunately, I'll be stuck with these small, unbalanced boobs for a few months. The worst part? I can't go shopping!!! Really, I can't justify buying clothes that I know aren't going to fit properly in another few months. On the other hand, I'll be happy to be done with treatment. Also, my incisions will have more time to heal before we start going to crazy with the inflation. And let's face it - anything worth doing is worth overdoing, so I've got a ways to go :-)

So, onto the prep work. Radiation is a very targeted, high-energy beam that is directed at certain areas where cancer is likely to fester or recur. This includes the lymph node area, mammary glands, the chest wall, etc. Just like chemo, it kills both healthy cells and cancer cells, so it's important to make sure it's pinpointed to the right area.

Today they did a CAT scan of my chest to view my anatomy to determine where the beams may be directed and where they could possibly hit organs or other good tissue that we want to avoid. It was pretty interesting - The Zapper spoke about how some patients have "perfect" anatomy, and some have not-so-desirable anatomy. So, if the heart is too close to the breast tissue, for example, it makes positioning the beam very difficult.

I had to lie with my arms above my head for about 30-40 minutes, so it's really good that my range of motion is restored. It strained a bit, but I wasn't terribly uncomfortable. The techs were very careful about positioning my body just so. They made small markings all over my body for the scan, and then after the calculations were done I got tattooed. Oh yes, you read that right. I was hoping for a big read heart that said "MOM", but instead they are tiny dots that are no bigger than the period at the end of a sentence. :-( First, it was the polka dots not covering my incisions, and now this. I never get my way.

Anyway, the tattoos are where the beam is going to enter my body, so they are a little more appropriate. I think there are four of them.

My next appointment is the "dry run" appointment, where they'll go over the kinds of things I'll need to manage side effects, and position my body for the treatment without actually administering treatment. That happens not on this Friday, but next Friday. Then, the following Tuesday is my first treatment.

And now for the beer countdown... 1 more day to go! I've fielded lots of questions about what my first beer is going to be. I joked with my dad that if this was him, it would be easy - a Miller Lite! But for a true beer connoisseur (sorry, Dad), how will I know today what beer I want tomorrow? I pretty much know that it will be one of two beers, but I just don't know which one at this point. You'll just have to read tomorrow to find out.