Cancer Holidays - Weeks 27 and 28 - The end of formal treatment

Monday, March 31st was my last radiation treatment!!!!! 

The whole day was a bit overwhelming but I made it through. I pulled a Joan Lunden and did a little video clip right before I went in for my last treatment. Here it is (warning, its a bit of a tear jerker):

Video clip of Mel (this link is on dropbox so when you click on it if it asks you to sign in, just hit cancel and it will take you to the video).

Or click on the video below:
 

After radiation they gave me a little 'talk' about what to expect after treatment (physically I mean, not emotionally). Since there was a student (Joe) working with the group, Joe gave it a shot at giving me the talk. He did a great job - covered all of the bases and answered all of my questions. So here are the highlights - radiation continues to work for about 2 weeks after you are done treatment (which is right about now as I am writing this). So that means that the burn actually continues to get worse for the two weeks rather than better (I can confirm this as today is exactly two weeks and I've only noticed an improvement in the last few days). The side effect of fatigue also continues to get worse - I can attest to this as well, I've been pretty exhausted the past two weeks. Also, it can take anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks to fully heal. I can see how this is possible. Think of getting a sunburn in your armpit and then instead of not going out in the sun again until it heals, you keep going out sunbathing with your arms above your head for the next few weeks. Ouch. So all in all I don't expect to be fully healed from radiation until the end of May. That seems like a long time doesn't it?

As I said in my video, I gave my radiation techs some thank you presents - two CD's to add to their radiation library as well as some Easter candy and a thank you card that was a picture of Dom and I in the summer when I had my old hair. I included a picture because I figured they must see a lot of their patients as bald, with short hair or with wigs and so I thought that it would be nice to see what at least one of their patients looked like before the requisite chemo hair loss. There was a bell to ring after my treatment but I didn't really want to - mainly because radiation was such a breeze compared to chemo, plus it was a pretty emotional day and I teared up saying goodbye to Lyann one of the radiation techs and I didn't want to break down in the middle of the radiation treatment centre. 

When I say emotional, I don't mean sad - its just an overwhelming feeling to end the formal part of my cancer treatment - remember way back in August I met Dr. Dent on August 28th (two weeks after I found out I had cancer) and started chemo the very next day. That sort of timeline doesn't give one much time to process and grieve a cancer diagnosis. I've also figured out that you don't think much about that stuff when you physically don't feel well - having chemo every two weeks, then surgery a month later, then radiation a month after that doesn't give a lot of time to sit back and reflect on what is going on. In fact, it basically gives you no time to do so. And when you are thinking about how crappy you feel with chemo, dealing with a drain after surgery (barf), cording, healing and getting a burn with radiation its a distraction from the processing, grieving and just generally getting your head wrapped around the fact that you actually have cancer. 

Despite this, there is of course a huge reason to celebrate - so that's what we did on Monday night. After Dom's detailed nacho investigation we settled on Sir John A's for nachos with Dom's parents. Need I say more. 

The gift bag in the background are pearl earrings that Dom's parents gave me - I love the fact that I am still getting cancer presents. Awesome. 

The very next day I had an appointment with Dr. Craig (naturopath) as well as with Dr. Dent (aspergers) and an interview for the group therapy study that I am enrolled in. My appointment with Dr. Craig was great as usual - we had a lot to chat about as I hadn't met with him since just before radiation started. Dr. Craig asked me how I was feeling about ending treatment and I told him that as my radiation treatments were coming to an end my anxiety was increasing. Dr. Craig told me that the majority of his patients find that the end of their treatment just as - or in some cases more - stressful as in the beginning when you first find out you have cancer. This made me feel better that I'm not the only one who feels like this. Dr. Craig called it Stockholm syndrome and I think he's bang on with this analogy. Its not that I want to still have cancer, its that I don't want to stop being a patient or stop going to the Cancer Centre - I know, it sounds crazy. So, I had a list of questions for good ole Dr. Craig and so I figure its easiest if I do sort of a Q and A of all the questions I asked him (Disclaimer - these are answers for me - if you have questions, you should ask your own medical practioner):

• Why is it not recommended that people take a multivitamin for cancer prevention? 

There's no evidence to show that a multivitamin prevents cancer in any way. In fact in some cases, people take multivitamins as bandaids instead of eating a diet that's varied and full of vegetables. The bandaid technique does not help with cancer prevention. There are also some cases where people should not take multivitamins - for example people who smoke and take a multivitamin with vitamin A may actually increase their risk for lung cancer - Note from Mel: check this out if you are interested in reading more on this Vitamin A and smoking

• I just read an article about a woman who used cannabis oil to treat her triple negative breast cancer, do you know anything about this? 

No, but I've had a lot of people ask me about this in the recent past. Note from Mel: I sent Dr. Craig the article. If you are interested, here it is: Triple negative breast cancer and oil

• I just finished reading the book Wheat Belly - is there any need to cut out all wheat from my diet? What about spelt?

If you do not have any issue with eating wheat, there is no reason to eliminate that grain or any other grain from your diet. A lot of gluten free food is not healthy as it has added sugar and fat to make up for the lack of gluten. A diet that's rich in vegetables and has small amounts of grains is fine.  

Note from Mel: If you read this book, my advice is to take everything with a grain of salt - make that a handful of salt - the author is very evangelistic against wheat and its a bit over the top. The message I took from this book is that overall, we just eat way too many carbs in our diet these days. 

• I've read a lot about erythritol as a sweetener. What is it? Should I use it instead of sugar? 

Erythritol is a sugar alcohol and its actually sort of hard to find and in some people cause digestive upset. The best thing to use is honey or some other natural sweetener. 

• I was reading that they don't really give breast cancer patients PET scans or CT scans after treatment to see if there are any stray cancer cells because the test results are usually inconclusive or outright incorrect. Are there any tests that they can run to see if I am really 'cancer free'? Do the doctors ever declare you 'cancer free'?

No, there is no way to tell if there are any stray cancer cells anywhere unless you start having symptoms somewhere else. Doctors don't usually like to declare people cancer free right after treatment because they don't really know if you are.

• Why is it that being pregnant and breast feeding reduces your breast cancer risk?

It isn't until after pregnancy and breast feeding do breast cells actually mature. When cells are mature, they are less likely to be susceptible to cancer. 

• If I want to get pregnant, how long should I wait to get pregnant? 

That's a question for your oncologist, usually it is about 6 months to a year after treatment. 

• Are there any restrictions to colouring my hair? 

I never get involved with dyeing woman's hair or make up but ask your oncologist.

So that's about it for my appointment with Dr. Craig - I did also ask him whether the OICC has a mentorship program for people who have gone through the whole cancer process to provide support for others who are just starting. Apparently the OICC is just starting at looking a some sort of program so I've contacted the person at the OICC who is overseeing this initiative to see if I can get involved. 

I am going to end there and will write another entry hopefully by the end of the week where I'll go over my appointment with Dr. Dent, my meeting about my group therapy study that I'm enrolled in and a lot of other fun stuff - so stay tuned!!

Also if any of you are interested in tracking what you eat to give you an idea of what your own nutrition is like, I recommend this app - I just downloaded it the other day and its amazing to see that I am in a deficit when it comes to eating enough vegetables and fruit (note the emphasis should be on vegetables, rather than fruit for your 7 servings a day). Also its amazing to see how many carbs (grains) you consume in a day. I'm still sticking really close to my no carb, no sugar diet so I'm only about 2 to 3 servings per day but that is still surprising to me! 

Here's the app - plus if you sign up, they'll donate money to a few different charities. I of course chose the cancer one. 

Get enough app