Good thing, too. I'm fried! Today's the first day it has hurt sometimes when it's not being touched. I noticed on the bike ride and kept trying to adjust my clothing and it didn't really work.... because the problem is the skin itself. I think probably I am burned worse for having swum. (I did notice that the burn seemed worse the day after swimming, the last 2-3 times I swam. Now I'm planning to stay out of the pool for probably a couple of weeks til the skin's healed. However -- it was worth it to swim, and I probably got the weeks out of the pool down from the recommended 4 to 2.
I led the bike ride today. I think I made it too long, for me (40m). I figured out during the ride that perhaps I do have some fatigue from radiation, but it's like the chemo fatigue -- completely invisible til I try to ride with the Babes. (I still have more energy than most people.) I have been riding all winter, & 40 miles would usually be fine under those circumstances..... but with the treatment, I think perhaps not. I think I will shoot for 25-30 m rides for the next couple. Course I might feel better if I get to nap sometimes. See I really couldn't take daytime naps during the week while I was having radiation. I could really only squeeze one thing in between radiation and the end of the school day..... if it was a nap, that would be all I'd get to do......
And on that note -- I need a nap now! I'd just go to bed, but Matthew is out and will call for a ride in about an hour I think.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Got a lot done today -- and a reward, thanks to Jennifer
I had this very productive morning, and the icing on the cake of it was the swim I went for afterwards, which was only possible because of this great idea Jennifer gave me -- tegaderm! I got this nice 6"x6" water resistant tegaderm bandage from CVS ($4 each, but worth it when you're desperate....) and put it on my chest burn with some of the radiation onc's miracle burn gel, put some vaseline* on the burn under my armpit (which is dark and hurts to lie on but is scaly, not raw,) got into the water and took the shoulder strap off......and I was off! Plus, I was fast, because I was late! (*The vaseline was Barry's idea. What would I do without you guys????)
But lemme back up, because I'm kinda proud of the other stuff I managed to fit into this morning...... I mean, I earned that swim. Okay, so first I went to radiation, as always. I went by car today, though, because I had a job scheduled for afterwards, my first since July. Basically I had emailed my agency and said, I'm fine but I'm so booked with this treatment stuff.... if you guys can find me a job I can fit into my schedule I'd love one. Well it turns out someone had requested me..... at 9:50am in Annandale, which is on the other side of home from Georgetown..... Google said it was a 13 min drive, but I figured given that part of that was in DC, which is prone to traffic jams....
Anyway I offered Matthew a ride to school, since his school is basically on the way to Georgetown. We left at a little after 8, I dropped him at 8:15, got to G-town at 8:30, got to radiation at 8:37 (I park on the street, a few blocks away, because I'm not doing their crowded parking lot and paying for it too) and then I hit a roadblock..... My appointments are at 8:50, but sometimes I can get seen earlier if I get there earlier.... sometimes. Not today. Okay. But when it got to be 9 and I hadn't been called...... and then they called someone else instead... (She has the 8:40 slot, but we all had to wait for someone who they were taking a long time on today. Luckily the 8:40 woman offered to trade with me so I could make it to work.... whew!) SO basically Georgetown used up all my buffer time (thank goodness there was no traffic) and I only just made it to the appointment on time. (The patient arrived a couple of minutes after me -- this was a medical appointment I was interpreting for -- so I got away with it. Timeliness is a virtue in my present line of work, and one of my biggest challenges.)
The job was great, the patient made sure to make her next two follow-ups for when I can come, and I was on the road at 11:05.
OOPS! It was supposed to be a 45 min appointment, done at 10:35, and I had a dental appointment at 11:00 for myself. Called the dentist's at a red light and they said they would still see me 20 mins late. Then I drove like a bat out of hell to make it there only 20 mins late. COurse they made me wait then -- probably saw the next patient first. I had just decided to start eating my lunch when they called me..... they had to give me a toothbrush before they could see me......
I wasn't planning to go swimming. I had brought my pool bag and the tegaderm just in case.... and they had given me a new tube of miracle gel too..... I guess I hadn't completely given up on the idea. I had been thinking I could work out at home on the elliptical, but then the dog would give me the look -- and indeed she'd only been out to pee once at 6:20am (I know, I know) so she'd be in her rights. SO I could have taken her for a good hill walk. That was the amended plan. But you know, i did that yesterday (okay, that was only half of a good hill walk, but the scenery is the same, or close.) I like the stretching and toning from swimming, especially since the surgery. It pulls out the biking kinks, too. Keeps the muscles happy.....
So I was paying the dental secretary at 12:30, thinking what I was going to do. The pool swim only goes until 1:30, and I do a mile in 45 mins... and I still had to pay, get to my car, drive to the pool, change clothes, put on the tegaderm bandage, which I had never used before..... and OH YEAH get a quick bite to eat in there somewhere or I'd run out of blood sugar while swimming, which is NOT PLEASANT. (Can't stop for a snack when you're in the pool..... even harder than on the bike.) Maybe I chose swimming because fitting it into the time I had was a challenge.
So I did. Better, I did the WHOLE MILE. I did it in, I don't know, 35-38 minutes**, because I had to get the time to do all that stuff from SOMEwhere. It's a success, to be able to swim my mile in less time when I have to. (I have always been able to except some of the time when I was on chemo -- I think mostly at the end there. And I've hardly ever been able to swim a mile in under 45 mins under any circumstances other than being late.... sometimes when I'm really relaxed I take 50! Like when the pool is overheated -- I keep forgetting I'm not in the bath.) **This time I'm not sure how long it really took because I had a lot of leaky goggle trouble & kept having to stop and fix them......
The tegaderm worked so great I dried it off and left it on, and when I got home I peeled up a corner and put some more gel in, rather than using a clumsy gauze pad. We will see if the doc thinks it's doing all right when I see him on Thursday. He did look at it today and said it was improved, which I thought, too. I don't think the swimming puts me at a major risk for infection, especially given all my precautions, but I do think being in the chlorinated water for 45 mins is hard on the burned skin. Right now it feels better under the tegadermed spot than under the arm -- but all of it is doing all right. I think that stuff works really well.
But lemme back up, because I'm kinda proud of the other stuff I managed to fit into this morning...... I mean, I earned that swim. Okay, so first I went to radiation, as always. I went by car today, though, because I had a job scheduled for afterwards, my first since July. Basically I had emailed my agency and said, I'm fine but I'm so booked with this treatment stuff.... if you guys can find me a job I can fit into my schedule I'd love one. Well it turns out someone had requested me..... at 9:50am in Annandale, which is on the other side of home from Georgetown..... Google said it was a 13 min drive, but I figured given that part of that was in DC, which is prone to traffic jams....
Anyway I offered Matthew a ride to school, since his school is basically on the way to Georgetown. We left at a little after 8, I dropped him at 8:15, got to G-town at 8:30, got to radiation at 8:37 (I park on the street, a few blocks away, because I'm not doing their crowded parking lot and paying for it too) and then I hit a roadblock..... My appointments are at 8:50, but sometimes I can get seen earlier if I get there earlier.... sometimes. Not today. Okay. But when it got to be 9 and I hadn't been called...... and then they called someone else instead... (She has the 8:40 slot, but we all had to wait for someone who they were taking a long time on today. Luckily the 8:40 woman offered to trade with me so I could make it to work.... whew!) SO basically Georgetown used up all my buffer time (thank goodness there was no traffic) and I only just made it to the appointment on time. (The patient arrived a couple of minutes after me -- this was a medical appointment I was interpreting for -- so I got away with it. Timeliness is a virtue in my present line of work, and one of my biggest challenges.)
The job was great, the patient made sure to make her next two follow-ups for when I can come, and I was on the road at 11:05.
OOPS! It was supposed to be a 45 min appointment, done at 10:35, and I had a dental appointment at 11:00 for myself. Called the dentist's at a red light and they said they would still see me 20 mins late. Then I drove like a bat out of hell to make it there only 20 mins late. COurse they made me wait then -- probably saw the next patient first. I had just decided to start eating my lunch when they called me..... they had to give me a toothbrush before they could see me......
I wasn't planning to go swimming. I had brought my pool bag and the tegaderm just in case.... and they had given me a new tube of miracle gel too..... I guess I hadn't completely given up on the idea. I had been thinking I could work out at home on the elliptical, but then the dog would give me the look -- and indeed she'd only been out to pee once at 6:20am (I know, I know) so she'd be in her rights. SO I could have taken her for a good hill walk. That was the amended plan. But you know, i did that yesterday (okay, that was only half of a good hill walk, but the scenery is the same, or close.) I like the stretching and toning from swimming, especially since the surgery. It pulls out the biking kinks, too. Keeps the muscles happy.....
So I was paying the dental secretary at 12:30, thinking what I was going to do. The pool swim only goes until 1:30, and I do a mile in 45 mins... and I still had to pay, get to my car, drive to the pool, change clothes, put on the tegaderm bandage, which I had never used before..... and OH YEAH get a quick bite to eat in there somewhere or I'd run out of blood sugar while swimming, which is NOT PLEASANT. (Can't stop for a snack when you're in the pool..... even harder than on the bike.) Maybe I chose swimming because fitting it into the time I had was a challenge.
So I did. Better, I did the WHOLE MILE. I did it in, I don't know, 35-38 minutes**, because I had to get the time to do all that stuff from SOMEwhere. It's a success, to be able to swim my mile in less time when I have to. (I have always been able to except some of the time when I was on chemo -- I think mostly at the end there. And I've hardly ever been able to swim a mile in under 45 mins under any circumstances other than being late.... sometimes when I'm really relaxed I take 50! Like when the pool is overheated -- I keep forgetting I'm not in the bath.) **This time I'm not sure how long it really took because I had a lot of leaky goggle trouble & kept having to stop and fix them......
The tegaderm worked so great I dried it off and left it on, and when I got home I peeled up a corner and put some more gel in, rather than using a clumsy gauze pad. We will see if the doc thinks it's doing all right when I see him on Thursday. He did look at it today and said it was improved, which I thought, too. I don't think the swimming puts me at a major risk for infection, especially given all my precautions, but I do think being in the chlorinated water for 45 mins is hard on the burned skin. Right now it feels better under the tegadermed spot than under the arm -- but all of it is doing all right. I think that stuff works really well.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
burned
Let me describe what the radiation burn looks like, now that it's edges are so sharp and clear. I suppose a picture would be quicker. (It's actually probably a good idea to take one. Maybe Em will help me with that in a bit....) I should warn you guys, though, in case I do get one taken and posted -- people find how it looks disturbing. I think it looks fine, just burned -- which it's supposed to, so what's the big deal? Alan and Em don't like looking at it, though, Matthew won't even try, and I was surprised that the last time I saw the radiation oncologist, it bothered him, too. It took me awhile to figure it out...... this was last Tuesday. He asked to see it, as he does every week, I showed it to him, and he said "Yeah, that's what it's supposed to look like." Then after another moment he winced and said "Okay, that's enough, cover it up." He'd never done that before..... Imagine being a radiation oncologist and being bothered by how your patients look for the last two weeks of treatment when they are really burned...... and you have to keep doing it.
Anyway, here's a description of what I look like now. It looks like a 2D bowl, rounded at the bottom of my right-side ribs, going up beyond my right armpit and onto my back a bit, and on the left coming up a little left of the center of my chest and straight across on top. It's very dark on the sides and bottom, reasonably dark on top, and oddly light in the middle. WHich brings us to next week.
They have done all they are going to do on the outside of this "bowl," is my understanding. (Whooppee! I mean I am cooked. If this were a sunburn I woulda got out of the sun a week ago, at the latest -- and I can be pretty oblivious about that kinda thing.) So next week, my last week of radiation, my understanding is that they are going to radiate just the the scar, which is a diagonal line going up the middle of the "bowl." It goes from my right armpit down to the bottom/middle of my rib cage. It's a fine scar -- I'm happy with how it looks (well, when it's not burned, but this is short-term-temporary.)
It's a bit raw near the middle of my chest (left side of the burn) since I went swimming yesterday. The right side is maybe darker (in the armpit) but it's leathery and solid. I had a little trouble sleeping last night -- I am a belly sleeper...... which is a bit tricky at the moment! Today I bought a couple of 6x6 tegaderm bandages, thinking to try one next time I go swimming...... which might be Tuesday, or I might wait on it, depends on how the burn goes (and timing, as usual.)
ALso I have a yeast infection. This is only the 2nd since I started treatment, but it got bad fast like the other one (spread back I mean, along my episiotomy scar) and needed days of diflucan, not just one. The other one was in the summer, when I was on chemo, so no wonder it got bad fast. This time I am not sure...... it's been over a month and a half since my last chemo, and my white count was barely abnormal even then. I hope this is not some new low point for me with yeast infections..... I hope I won't need a 5 day course of diflucan every time I get a yeast infection..... especially since I start with a ONE day dose, and don't know it hasn't worked til after 24 hrs, so it's one day on, one day off, and then 5 days on......
Okay I'm off. Time to take the very patient dog for a walk. We tend to wait on it now that we've fenced in the back yard and can let her out during the day...... which is nice given the way our schedule has been lately -- ALan leaves before 7am, I get the kids out and then get out on my bike at 8-8:10. If you think I have time to walk the dog in there...... she does come out when I get my bike ready, though.....
Anyway, here's a description of what I look like now. It looks like a 2D bowl, rounded at the bottom of my right-side ribs, going up beyond my right armpit and onto my back a bit, and on the left coming up a little left of the center of my chest and straight across on top. It's very dark on the sides and bottom, reasonably dark on top, and oddly light in the middle. WHich brings us to next week.
They have done all they are going to do on the outside of this "bowl," is my understanding. (Whooppee! I mean I am cooked. If this were a sunburn I woulda got out of the sun a week ago, at the latest -- and I can be pretty oblivious about that kinda thing.) So next week, my last week of radiation, my understanding is that they are going to radiate just the the scar, which is a diagonal line going up the middle of the "bowl." It goes from my right armpit down to the bottom/middle of my rib cage. It's a fine scar -- I'm happy with how it looks (well, when it's not burned, but this is short-term-temporary.)
It's a bit raw near the middle of my chest (left side of the burn) since I went swimming yesterday. The right side is maybe darker (in the armpit) but it's leathery and solid. I had a little trouble sleeping last night -- I am a belly sleeper...... which is a bit tricky at the moment! Today I bought a couple of 6x6 tegaderm bandages, thinking to try one next time I go swimming...... which might be Tuesday, or I might wait on it, depends on how the burn goes (and timing, as usual.)
ALso I have a yeast infection. This is only the 2nd since I started treatment, but it got bad fast like the other one (spread back I mean, along my episiotomy scar) and needed days of diflucan, not just one. The other one was in the summer, when I was on chemo, so no wonder it got bad fast. This time I am not sure...... it's been over a month and a half since my last chemo, and my white count was barely abnormal even then. I hope this is not some new low point for me with yeast infections..... I hope I won't need a 5 day course of diflucan every time I get a yeast infection..... especially since I start with a ONE day dose, and don't know it hasn't worked til after 24 hrs, so it's one day on, one day off, and then 5 days on......
Okay I'm off. Time to take the very patient dog for a walk. We tend to wait on it now that we've fenced in the back yard and can let her out during the day...... which is nice given the way our schedule has been lately -- ALan leaves before 7am, I get the kids out and then get out on my bike at 8-8:10. If you think I have time to walk the dog in there...... she does come out when I get my bike ready, though.....
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