I did forget to tell the story about my drain removal last month - I'll keep it short. This nurse named Andre came over and seriously, he could've been from the movie the Godfather. He showed up on my doorstep with dark sunglasses, wearing a leather jacket from 1985 and carrying a steel briefcase - the kind that you see in the movies that holds a gun with a silencer. He of course, had an accent too and was about 50 years old. Anyway turns out the briefcase held medical supplies and he pulled off the dark sunglass clips from his glasses and looked a bit more normal. So he took out what I thought was a stitch keeping my drain in place but it was more like a staple. He then said to take a deep breath and let it out as he pulled out the drain. It was good he took it out when he did because he said it was drying up (and it hurt when he pulled it out too). This is what it looked like:
The long white thing at the end is what was inside my body - gross. Interestingly, I saw the same drain on a 600 lb. lady on TLC while watching "My 600 lb Life" at the gym. I don't know why, but I find this show fascinating (and also sad) and it always seems to be on when I'm on the treadmill at the gym...anyway, this lady had to get drains in where her lymphnodes were and it looked just like this one!
Okay so gross part over, lets get back to this week. I took some photos of the radiation machine so that you can get a better idea of what it looks like. And before you wonder, no there are no laser beams or really anything that you can see with the human eye and I am not radioactive afterwards. In fact, the nurses don't even wear any protective clothing when they are in the room - but they do leave the room when the machine is zapping me and this big red light starts flashing once it all starts to warn people not to enter the room .
That's it for radiation - like I said, so far so good. I've gotten into a good routine of getting up, having breakfast, going to the gym, coming home to shower and then heading off to radiation.
I continue to go to acupuncture and the cording has improved but with radiation it has sort of come back a bit - my massage therapist Meagan also said that she can tell my right side of my body is reacting to radiation because apparently its stiffer. But this all makes sense and just to refresh our memories, here is a great description of what radiation is from breastcancer.org:
Radiation therapy uses a special kind of high-energy beam to damage cancer cells. (Other types of energy beams include light and X-rays.) These high-energy beams, which are invisible to the human eye, damage a cell’s DNA, the material that cells use to divide.
Over time, the radiation damages cells that are in the path of its beam — normal cells as well as cancer cells. But radiation affects cancer cells more than normal cells. Cancer cells are very busy growing and multiplying — 2 activities that can be slowed or stopped by radiation damage. And because cancer cells are less organized than healthy cells, it's harder for them to repair the damage done by radiation. So cancer cells are more easily destroyed by radiation, while healthy, normal cells are better able to repair themselves and survive the treatment.
Dom told me last week that instead of looking like Sinead O'Connor I now look like Carol from The Walking Dead - and you know what? He's right, that's all I see now when I look in the mirror:
This is exactly what I look like right now. If you watch The Walking Dead you'll know that Carol's hair has grown in quite a bit over the last few seasons and her hair looks super cute so I am hoping that mine will do the same. Seriously, I look exactly like her, the same mix of grey and brown hair, the pointy nose, the mouth...maybe next entry I'll post of picture of me for comparison, we'll see.
Other than that, its been a good week - last weekend we had our annual curling banquet - its not a big banquet, its our curling team, past members of the team and our significant others but I like to call it the curling banquet because it sounds formal. Jordan made us all awards which was great! This is my award:
You might be wondering who Suzie Duford is and why I got her Leadership award. A few years ago when our team first started our friend Kalle was the Skip. Kalle always used one fo the club's brooms that said Suzie Duford on it - someone had written the name in black magic marker on the broom - assumingly this was Suzie Duford who did this. So after two years of being Skip, our team bought Kalle his own curling broom but knowing his fondness for Suzie Duford, we made sure that we wrote Suzie Duford's name on the broom before we gave it to him. We now call the broom Suzie Duford as if she is our team member and as Skip this year, I got to use Suzie Duford. And if after this story, you are wondering what Suzie Duford looks like or if she is even exists or is merely a legend, here is the real Suzie Duford:
At least we are pretty sure this is the real Suzie Duford - she's the only one we've been able to find in Ottawa thanks to Facebook so we can only assume that this is the legend. We considered sending her a message over Facebook to tell her this story and maybe invite her to our annual curling banquets but we were worried she would think we are a bit crazy since even though we don't know her she has become an integral part of our team.
And in case you are wondering what happened in the playoffs our teammate Jordan put together another fantastic recap, I'll leave you with the recap and I'll write again next week. Hopefully by next week, it'll be a bit warmer!
Curling. Sport of Gods and Kings.
In Tuesday night’s playoff win, Strategic
Incompetence played, despite its name, with strategic competence, poise
and grace. Here’s how it happened:
End 1:
Playoffs. Sheet 5 was where the 9th and 10th (in a
league of ten) would faceoff. Strategic Incompetence knew they were in
tough against the .500 record Sheet Disturbers. After losing the coin
toss and hammer, SI picked the blue rocks: colour
of #winning. The early ice was tacky and difficult to read, causing
both teams to misfire on several stones. Despite the near-frantic
efforts of the sweepers, few rocks made the hogline. In the end, SD had a
little more umph in their throws and sat 1.
Score: 1-0
End 2:
The TSN turning point. SI reshuffled their line-up
and moved some players around. With a faster ice, SI was able to take it
to the house like Trick Daddy (circa 2001). The only crack in their
focus came when Kim (shooting 3rd) asked which
colour we were. When told “blue” she collected a red stone and set up
in the hack before being corrected (again)… Mel put the opponents out of
their misery with a couple daggers. SD couldn’t keep up and team SI sat
3.
Score: 1-3
End 3:
Team SI used its depth to keep fresh, this time
giving Anne a rest so she could collect her cider and wander the
sidelines with it as if at a resort pool. They say curling is 99% a
mental sport. In End 3, team SI started playing mind games
with its adversaries. In an effort to show team camaraderie and
confidence, Hieu and Kim didn’t even bother to sweep for Jordan as they
sat on the sideline bench like two friends waiting for the bus. SD
managed a meagre point.
Score: 2-3
End 4:
Icing an all ladies line-up was the best decision
SI could have made. All four players threw perfect stones, culminating
with Anne executing Mel’s Plan B to perfection. Adding to the good times
of End 4, Jordan found a new broom with the
moniker HAMMER marked on it. Someone else had added a “Noodle” sticker
just above HAMMER... Meanwhile, the girls sat 4. Four!
Score: 2-7
End 5:
The push back from SD was expected. Team SI missed
some shots while SD executed. An interesting trick play by which Kim
subbed for Hieu mid-game didn’t help. Even the newly discovered HAMMER
couldn’t make a difference, despite Mel’s cheers.
SD picked up a pair of points. We’ve got ourselves a game, folks.
Score: 4-7
End 6:
The final end just came down to who wanted it more.
Team SI attacked the house curling well-placed shots behind guards that
could not be taken out by SD. As Mel skated down to take SI’s last 2
shots, SI was sitting 4 to SD’s 0. With only
two red rocks yet to be thrown, arithmetic indicated that SI owned it.
Still the two Skips battled it out with Mel securing 3 more points for
SI. By the power of Suzie Duford – a playoff win!
Score: 4-10
