My Cancer Journey

Chemotherapy affects most of your body. It not only kills cancer cells, but also healthy ones. You notice it while going through treatment, but also long after you complete your infusions. Four months after my last chemo infusion I noticed that one of my toenails was darker. It kept getting darker until I felt it was getting loose. This picture was taken five months after my last treatment. It looked like I had dropped something on my toe, but I had not, and it did not hurt. I was mostly concerned that the nail would catch on something and get ripped off. About two months later, seven months after my last chemo infusion, the nail fell off. There was fortunately another one growing underneath. Now, two months later, about nine months after my last treatment, the nail looks normal. I’m happy to have it back. There is a nail on the other foot that looks a little darker than the others. Keeping my fingers crossed that it won’t fall off.  My fingernails have always been hard and strong....

Sometimes when I squeegee the glass door after showering, I have flashbacks to what it was like while I was going through the first set of chemotherapy treatments. After each infusion there were a few days when I was not physically capable of cleaning the door. If I moved at all it was very slowly. Even then I was huffing and puffing with every movement I made. This happened after each of the six treatments I received over 18 weeks. I did a lot of sitting around those days. That is not easy for me; I need to move and be busy, or I get sluggish and depressed. Fortunately I was not like this every day. Although exhausted most of the time I was able to squeegee the shower door and do other things. Some days I was able to take short and slow walks. The fatigue from chemo can last from six to twelve months after you finish the treatments.  Seven weeks after the last infusion, before my energy had come back, it was time for the lumpectomy. This brought issues as well, and fatigue was one...

I received radiation treatments Monday through Friday for four weeks. The first one was on Wednesday, March 20. After the second treatment on Thursday, my skin felt like I had a bad sunburn. It happened faster than I had thought it would, and I was concerned.    My skin had gotten drier with age, and even more so because of the chemotherapy. The days before radiation I had been rushed and not put lotion on. I asked the radiation oncologist if that could be the reason for my skin to burn so quickly, and he said that was very likely. So, if you need radiation, make sure your skin is not too dry, but do not have lotion on the affected area when going in for treatment.   After applying lotion on the area, it felt better. I got into a routine -  When I got up in the morning, I slathered lotion on the area that would be treated. Before leaving for the hospital, I showered to make sure all the lotion was gone from my breast and armpit. When I got to the hospital at 1:15pm, ...

On Thursday, February 22, I had a consultation with the radiation oncologist to discuss what to expect for the radiation treatments. Then Thursday, March 7, I went for radiation set-up. This was done in a different room from where the actual radiation is done. There they made sure I was positioned correctly on the couch (the hard table you lie on during the treatments) so that the treatments would work on the correct area each time. The technicians do this by creating a personal “pillow” for you to keep you from moving your upper body during the treatments. During this appointment they created a mold for this headrest.   They were able to make it a little elevated, and I was also allowed to keep my head sideways, so my vertigo would not get triggered. It helped, and I did not have any vertigo attacks during any of the treatments.   One technician tattooed three small dots on my midsection - one on my left side, one on the right, and one halfway between the two. They were posit...

Because the tumor showed to be less than 2 cm (.78 inches) and the lymph nodes did not look to be affected, my oncologist suggested weekly Taxol IV chemotherapy after the lumpectomy. It is a drug that attacks everything in your body. It kills the cancer cells, but also that which helps your body stay healthy. This is why many lose their hair while on this regimen.  Losing your hair does not sound like fun, but getting Taxol treatments will also lower your immune system because it kills your white blood cells as well. The white blood cells attack viruses that enter your body. They help you fight viruses and other illnesses. This is the scariest of the side effects because it can lower your immune system to the point where even something simple like a cold can be serious. This is why it is important to stay away from those who are sick while going through chemo. Taxol is administered once per week and builds up in your body during the twelve weeks it is given. This should kill whatev...