Cancer Holidays - Week 21 - The third period has begun...

So I had my first radiation appointment on Wednesday - it was sooo painful. Just kidding, I didn't feel a thing. In fact, for my first treatment, I didn't know that I was even getting radiation!

Let's back up though...so I checked in on Wednesday morning for my orientation which wasn't much. I got my appointment card that has a bar code on it so I can scan myself in for every appointment rather than checking in with a receptionist. I was also shown the change rooms and lockers for my clothes (I have to get naked from the waist up and wear a hospital gown). Then I sat and waited. Here I am (not the best selfie I've done):

Here is what the waiting room looks like:

I'll see if I can take a photo of the radiation machine next time so that you can see what it looks like.

Kevin came and got me to take me into the radiation room where I also met Steven (who looks like Max Headroom - remember him?)

  

Kevin, Steven and Lyann (pronounced Leanne) are my radiation technicians for the duration of my radiation, which is nice because then at least they are familiar and all three of them seem like nice peeps so that's good too. My radiation peeps set me up on the table and adjusted me to the measurements that Mallory had taken the week before at my CT scan. Then Kevin told me that they were first going to take two x-rays and then start the radiation. So they left the room and told me to stay still. This machine basically just rotates around you and makes a few beeping noises.

On a side note, they have a stereo in the room and Bryan Adams was playing - I'm sure it must have been his greatest hits album and I'm not a huge Bryan Adams - who doesn't like Summer of '69 - but beyond that I'm not a fan. But at least there was music playing because its sort of boring just lying there. 

Anyway, after two and half Bryan Adams songs, Kevin and Steven came back in and said I was done - I was surprised - I thought "that was radiation?" I thought they were still looking at the x-rays. I didn't even know I was getting zapped! 

Afterwards, I met Lyann to go over what to expect in terms of side effects and she showed me some cream that I needed to buy to put on two times a day while I'm getting radiation and we also talked about other side effects - there's basically two - sunburn on the area I'm getting the radiation and fatigue. Oh and I might also get a sore throat because of residual radiation. She showed me a 3D computer generated model of my body and where I'm getting radiation which was really cool. I also get a booster at the end of the treatment which is basically three extra radiation treatments right at my incision where the tumours used to be. I guess that's why its 28 treatments in total 25 treatments plus the booster. 

We also talked about not taking any antioxidant supplements while I'm getting zapped because radiation works on an oxidation basis so you don't want to be taking antioxidants that might interfere with it (I already knew this because Dr. Craig told me this a few weeks ago).That's it! As I write this I've now had three treatments so 23 more to go! 

The cording in my arm also continues to improve thanks to Tran and my massage therapist Meagan. I've been going to bed earlier too since I know Tran is going to ask me every time that I go in to see him.

Dom had the day off on Friday last week so we used some of our Keg gift certificates and treated ourselves to an early Valentine's dinner. We don't really celebrate Valentine's - mostly because growing up it was always my sister's birthday - but I wanted to go before I started on my strict diet (which started on Tuesday). We had a good time but had to eat dinner at 4:30 pm because otherwise they were booked up. Here we are:

 I don't know what Dom is doing but can you tell we enjoyed our dinner? 

I received some good cards this past week - from the Petites and from my friend Geoffrey who wrote the card while he was touring around Asia but didn't get a chance to mail it until he got home, which I think is funny because I am a super procrastinator so I can understand how that can happen. 

We also had some really good meals delivered too - one from Lesley and one from Ann. Ann has introduced me to really delicious ways to eat chick peas which I am forever grateful because I know they are really good for me but I'm not a big fan of them or anything else in the legume family. I love the food deliveries especially being back on my strict diet (no sugar, no carbs) since it gives me new ideas for dishes. Also, I religiously watch the Marilyn Denis Show, Steve and Chris and the Chew for recipe ideas. 
 
As I mentioned in my last entry Leanna, Trevor and their two girls Della and Maisie were coming up for the weekend. They arrived on Saturday night and as you can see, settled in with Dom and I to watch the hockey game. 

We had a blast on Sunday despite Ottawa being the coldest capital in the world!! We went on the canal - Dom and Della were the only ones who were brave enough to go skating. 

Here we are on our way to the canal in the truck:

Leanna just had laser eye surgery on Friday so she had to keep her eyes out of the sun so it looks like she has a huge head but its just because she's wearing two hats to keep warm and make sure her eyes are well covered.

Leanna and I agreed that we have never purposely been outside when it was that cold, -40 degrees with the wind chill. Since no one else had the guts to take off their boots to put on their skates (other than Della and Dom) we walked along the canal and indulged in a Beaver Tail. Here are the girls enjoying their Beaver Tails:

Here we are after we got off the canal :

Afterwards we went out to Bobby's Table to have poutine (I didn't eat poutine, not my favourite but I did share one of their famous smoked meat sandwiches with Leanna). 

This is Maisie with what I like to call "crazy eyes". 

We went home, warmed up then believe it or not, went out to the outdoor rink near our house to go skating and then spent the night hanging out, watching TV and keeping warm. Oh and the girls did a concert for us on Sunday night. Here's Della on the electric drums - pretty good for a gal who has never played the drums (Dom showed her how to use the drums but he didn't help her with the beats):

Here we are watching Scooby Doo. That's Cooper on the far right - the Langille's dog. He's a sweet dog and seems to enjoy hanging out at our house: 

On Monday, we got up and went skating again on our local rink before the Langilles left in the afternoon. This was a great weekend, I really enjoy hanging out with the Langilles. 

Oh and an update on my hair. Its growing back - both wanted and unwanted hair. Another week or so and I'm going to have to revert to plucking my eyebrows again - I swear my eyebrows are bushier than they were before. My hair on my head is growing super fast - in fact, I showed the Langilles my hair this past weekend - Della told me "you don't look any different" and Leanna told me that I have a perfectly shaped head for super short hair - no dents or bumps (she's right, my head is super round). I pretty much look like Sinead O'Connor right now (but not the way she looks now, the way she looked in the 90's).

 

Yes, I purposely picked the prettiest looking photo of Sinead O'Connor! The only difference is that I have a lot of grey hair - I mean a lot! And, I've heard that I cannot colour my hair for at least a year after my treatments which means that this gal is going to have to get used to the greys...I am getting used to it though - the super short hair I mean. I don't wear a toque at the gym anymore and if it wasn't so freakin' cold I'd probably be toque-free at home and when I'm just hanging out with friends. But for now, while its -40 its either a toque or a wig for me. 

I think that's it - not a lot of cancer stuff but this radiation thing seems to be a-okay so far. I'm sure I'll get sick of going every day to the hospital but it gets me out of the house and now that I've got a gym membership I've got no excuse not to go since I'm out and about anyways. I have to say that I am glad I don't have cancer in the summer - I think its much easier to spend time resting up after all of my treatments when its -40 outside. I almost feel lucky to be able to stay curled up in bed on these mornings when Dom is getting ready for work and the radio announcer is talking about how cold it is outside! 

Stay warm! 

Cancer Holidays - Week 20 - Tran is back!

This will be a short one - not much has happened this past week. 

But first, let's back up the blog wagon to January because I completely forgot to give a shout out to my curling team Strategic Incompetence. I managed to play maybe a bit more than half of the games of the season especially when I switched to the Taxol chemo and hardly had any side effects. Anyway, we landed in last place but that didn't matter to any of us - we won two games right at the end of the season. Here's a photo of the team and some action shots of our very last game (of which we won): 

We missed the sign up for the winter season but we are planning on playing again in the fall.

As the title of this blog says Tran is back! I've had two treatments since my last blog - I was trying to get back on the early bedtime ritual before I saw him but he could tell I was sort of fibbing when he asked. And remember that cording thing I talked about in my last blog? That's the thing that was restricting my arm movements - anyway, I don't know if its the cumulative effect of massage, acupuncture and my home exercises but coincidentally after my first treatment with Tran, my cording improved significantly and continues to do so.

Wendy made us some food last week and we went over to Andrew and Laurel's for a delicious dinner too which is good for me because Dr. Craig wants me to put on a few pounds before radiation starts and I'm back on my no carb, no sugar diet. I've also been eating Uncle Rick's Christmas Pudding that I had in the freezer to help with the weight gain program - its not exactly 'low sugar' but I had to eat it sometime right? And it is deeelicious. 

We had a quiet weekend - we went to the Black Sheep Inn on Friday night to see a band, Folly and the Hunter. It was really good but late, I didn't get to bed until 1:00 am (don't tell Tran) and it killed me! The next day I didn't get out of bed until 11:00 am. We didn't do much for the rest of the weekend but it was a nice break. 

I was at the Cancer Centre on Monday having a CT Scan to set up for my radiation. The technician was really nice - I think her name was Mallory - anyway she also gave me these little dot tattoos for radiation treatment. She said that they aren't exactly the spots where the radiation will be targeted, they are just used to 'line me up' for radiation. And the spots are permanent tattoos - don't ask me why I thought they were temporary but they aren't so I've got six blue freckle-sized dots on my chest. Mallory asked me if I was afraid of needles and I told her that I already have two tattoos and I was just at acupuncture before I came so I'm fine with needles. She also spent a lot of time adjusting the table I was lying on as they had measurements on them and she was recording them. She said that's what they use to also 'line me up'. Radiation is an exact science! 

Other than that it was a quiet week - I went out for lunch yesterday with friends from work, oh and I think I might be joining a gym - probably GoodLife. I've got a seven day pass to try it out so I've gone twice now and I think I'm in. Plus, people who are 'very active' after cancer have a 40% lower chance of recurrence - a stat that Dr. Craig tells me every time I see him - so that's got to become the new normal for me and I figure now is the time to get into the habit so that once I get back to work, it'll be the easy for me to maintain. Plus for the next few months it'll be a good excuse to get out of the house. 

Oh and I decided to become the snowblower fairy for the neighbourhood so I snowblow the sidewalk for our side of the street and today, I went two doors down and snowblowed our neighbour's driveway because he's super old - not just retired - but like in his 80's!! And he's out shovelling and everytime I see him I worry he's going to keel over!

Leanna, Trevor, Dellan and Maisie are coming up this weekend and we are really looking forward to their visit, they were here last year on Family Day weekend too and it was a riot. 

Oh and Marc sent me a fashion toque all the way from BC so I am going to wear it when I'm out being a fairy snowblower. 

Check out those eyebrows! Oh yeah!

Cancer Holidays - Week 19 - Its GI Jane!

As you know, I had a lot of appointments this week so let's get down to business...
 
We met with Dr. Beaulieu last Monday to review the pathology results from my surgery. Apparently she removed 13 lymph nodes, not just the one as I previously reported (remember my rant about Dr. Beaulieu coming to talk to me after my surgery when I'm all stoned from drugs?). Anyways, out of the 13 lymph nodes, only 3 were cancerous. This is a good thing - the best would have been no cancer but 3/13 ain't bad - as Dom says, 'it's better than 10/13.' So for us regular folks it doesn't really matter that much but they do use the number of infected lymph nodes as a way to stage my cancer which influences treatment regimens (this sort of matters less since I've already had chemo). And to our surprise, I actually had two tumours in my breast, not just one - they were so close together you couldn't tell, even Dr. Beaulieu couldn't tell when she removed it so it was a surprise to her too. Dr. Beaulieu also removed tissue and skin around my tumours which all came back negative for cancer - this is good because that means that she didn't miss anything. As I had predicted one of the tumours was dead and the other one was still alive but both were very small. They can also tell if the tumours responded to chemo so the two tumours responded to chemo but the pathologist could not find any evidence that the tumours in my lymph nodes responded to chemo which is a little concerning...but there's no real explanation - sometimes cancer can become resistant to treatment over time or remember my theory about the Parent Cancer and the Kid Cancer (the Kid Cancer being the one in my lymph nodes) well that's a possibility too - that Kid Cancer flourished after Parent Cancer died...

Oh and I felt like it was Christmas because Dr. Beaulieu changed the bulb on my drain. Remember that gross tissue stuff that had blocked my drain? Well after a week of that thing floating around in the drain bulby-thing it began to stink so every time Dom emptied the drain it stunk - like rotting flesh. Dr. Beaulieu was able to find a new bulb and changed it for me while she also changed the dressing on the drain. She also removed my bandages from my incisions and said she was very pleased with how everything was healing. So, I have two incisions both about 8 cm long and not very far away from each other but you wouldn't see it unless I'm wearing a bathing suit, I don't even think you could see them if I was wearing a tank top. So overall, I'm pleased about the surgery. 

On Tuesday I had my last acupuncture treatment with Hippie Bruce as Tran is back from his trip. I did ask Hippie Bruce if I am allowed to flip flop between the two of them because Japanese and Chinese acupuncture are so different and I think I've benefited from both of them a lot. Hippie Bruce said that was totally fine with him. I am going to go back to Tran for the month of February and see how it goes and I'll see if I want to go back and forth between the two of them after that. 

On Tuesday afternoon I met with my oncologist Dr. Dent (aspergers-like personality) to touch base on things since my surgery. Dr. Dent was the most un-aspergers-like that day, she sat down right beside me and had a somewhat normal conversation. We talked about the pathology results - unfortunately she has no explanation as to why the lymph node tumours didn't show evidence of responding to chemo. I also asked her if there's any way to test and make sure that I don't have any rogue cancer cells floating around my body (your lymph system basically gets dumped back into your bloodstream so if there are rogue cancer cells, in theory, they can hop on the lymph highway and basically go wherever they want to in your bloodstream). Dr. Dent's answer was that that was what chemo was for - to target the tumours and any rogue cancer cells floating around (which makes sense). Apparently there aren't any tests really that I can take - other than the MRI, bone scan and CT scan that I had before I started chemo but those detect tumours, not micro-tumours - so I am pretty much keeping my fingers crossed for the rest of my life and will continue to live an 'anti-cancer' lifestyle (there really is a test I found out on Friday but I'll get to that in a bit).

On Wednesday I met with Dr. Caudrelier (radiology oncologist) to go over radiation. The nurse who brought me to the examination room was new to this particular job and so asked me if she could see my drain because she's never seen one before - I told her 'sure, I talk a lot about this drain and have shown it to lots of people!' I never miss an opportunity to share/educate someone. I told her about the grossness that has come out of the drain and how happy I was that Dr. Beaulieu replaced the bulb on it. I had met Dr. Caudrelier way back in August when I first went to the Cancer Centre and he remembered me from them - I joked with him I looked a lot different back then since I had long hair, eyebrows and eyelashes. 

Oh and on a side note, I forgot to mention in the last blog that my hair is really starting to grow back! Apparently, the last hair to fall out is the first to grow back so I've developed this five o'clock shadow for eyebrows and my eyelashes have almost completely grown back. My hair on my head has really started to grow back and its not patchy at all like everyone said it would be (trust me I study it in the mirror for a few minutes every day and Dom reports on the areas that I cannot see). I'm pretty sure that in a few weeks I'll look like GI Jane - remember her? If you were old enough to watch R-rated movies waaaay back in 1997 (I was in second year university) then you remember GI Jane.

Actually, now that I see her again, I look just like her right now except her eyebrows are way better. This is me working out in my basement:

     

Just kidding, I can only do two-handed push ups, with my legs together and probably on a few in a row. I'm not quite up to GI Jane standards yet...but you just wait!

Getting back to my appointment with Dr. Caudrelier - he's French and I mean Parisian French, not Quebec French and he's got a strong accent so I really have to pay attention when he talks. He started by trying to 'sell' me radiation so I interrupted him and said 'you don't have to sell me radiation, sign me up that's what I'm here for'. So we talked about different radiation techniques and the different treatments that he's done for patients when working in Europe. Here's my treatment regimen:

• 28 treatments starting right after Family Day 
• one treatment everyday Monday to Friday 
• each treatment takes about 15 minutes
• the treatments will cover the right side of my chest from my sternum in the middle up to my collar bone, over to my armpit and just below my boob

This means that I'll have radiation every day for half of February and all of March. The most common side effect is a sunburn where I'll get zapped which will probably happen a few weeks after radiation has started. I have to have a CT scan the week before so that they can pinpoint where the radiation will go and they will also tattoo on me (not permanently) the exact spots for radiation.  I really like Dr. Caudrelier - he's super nice and the few jokes I cracked he laughed at which always makes me feel more comfortable. 

On Friday I met with my naturopathic doctor, Dr. Craig. We went over the results of my surgery and I asked him the same questions that I asked Dr. Dent. Dr. Craig did tell me that there is a new drug that was originally used on meth addicts to help them through detox, then used on AIDS patients to help the immune system and has recently been used on cancer patients with good results to help the immune system fight off cancer. Its called LDN (low dose naltrexone) and a recent study using this drug on triple negative breast cancer cells had great results so I will be getting a prescription for this drug this week. Dr. Craig also told me that there is a new company in Alberta that tests the peptides in your urine to predict the likelihood of cancer recurrence. Its a very new test and it has been studied with results of 98% accuracy - so I will be taking this test in a few months after all of the cancer treatment is done, which is great because it will help to inform my decision on any future treatments to avoid a recurrence. Oh and I go back on my strict diet for radiation - no carbs and no sugar. I have been on a low-carb/low-sugar diet ever since chemo ended but this will be much more strict but I've done it before and Dr. Craig showed me a great new website that I will use for recipes.

Dad and Linda came up this weekend which was great because I hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving before Dad got his hip replaced. We didn't do much because it was so friggin' cold so Dad and Dom went on a brewery tour while Linda and I went shopping. It was a nice relaxing weekend and Dad is going to come back up in March for a visit since we are both not doing much these days - we might as well do it together!  

Thanks to everyone who sent cards and gifts over the past few weeks - we just got a nice gift certificate to the Keg from some of the Finks so we will be using that before the radiation diet starts.

I think that's it. I hope everyone is keeping warm. Dom's parents gave us their snow blower when they moved into their condo this summer and so far, I've used it twice and always whisper a little thanks to them every time it snows! 

This was me on my first attempt:

 I've got the hang of it now:

This is my dream - a snow blower for Fat May and Lola: