Radiation Burn Return

Of course it turned out that I was in fact sick (surprise surprise! to no one but me, probably.) Perhaps the symptoms mimicked my taxol side effects because my body remembered them, someone said last night. (It sounded more plausible the way she said it.) Yesterday I was clearly better but not quite all the way -- today I do feel all better though. TOo bad we only have a couple more days here.....

I have another new thing, though. Not sure if this is because of the illness or the herbs Lenny's chinese doctor gave me for them (those are the two most plausible guesses so far) but my radiation burn is back! It came back MOnday.

I mean, my radiation was done on March 20th, and it left a nasty looking burn that took a month to heal after that. But still it's been all better for months -- just a little browner than the skin around it. And suddenly Monday night it felt itchy -- so i checked in the mirror and it was red and angry looking! I thought at first it must be because I had stopped oiling it for a couple of days while i was sick -- but I started again and the burn area continued getting worse. NOw it has itchy raised bumps along the upper edge and behind my armpit. I emailed my radiation onc, who is wonderful in person and always responds to my emails right away -- but all he would tell me is that I need to come in. (I knew he would, too......) SO I have to call tomorrow and schedule a visit for Tuesday -- just what I want to do with my time on my kids' first day of school..... and really, what's he going to do anyway?

Aches and Pains in Ithaca

Got to Ithaca yesterday for my first visit here in 2 yrs and almost immediately started feeling achey and chilled. My first thought was, it's viral, but it hasn't moved in the last 24 hrs. Not better, not worse. Like when i was on taxol a year ago. Lenny thinks maybe it's an adrenal crash. Is it possible that could cause the same symptoms as taxol?

I don't know anything about adrenal crashes. Lenny has a chinese medicine practitioner he thinks is great at diagnosing and might be able to help with acupuncture. I'm going to see if i can get in to see her tomorrow or something -- it would be nice to at least have a sense of what this is!

I did bike my first comfortable over 50 mile ride since chemo, Friday, and they yesterday I drove here -- about 320-330 miles. I do have a little sore spot under my back/shoulder bone that started at the end of the drive, but the rest of this feels completely different.

Could it be that I couldn't deal with all the side effects of chemo when i was on it, so some of it waited? THat's happened to me with emotional things before.... I didn't know I could do it with physical things, but if it turns out I did that has kind of neat implications for keeping the cancer away -- or in check -- now and in future!