Changes

Started the new radiation treatments today. Number 14 to be exact. This means there are 14 more to go. I've had three full days without treatments and I sense things are beginning to change. Overall my fatigue level seems to be getting worse. I'm very tired with very little exertion. Taking a shower tires me out to the point now where I have to sit on my bed for a few minutes to gain some strength back before I get dressed. Then once I'm dressed I have to sit for ten minutes to gather the strength to go out the door and get in my car.

My arm is getting a nice tan to it now or should I say dirty brown. All of a sudden I have more freckles on that arm than ever. I looked at them just now with a lighted magnifying glass and some of the freckles actually are small blisters. That's a surprise to me; I thought it would take more radiation than what I've gotten so far to start breaking up the skin.

I told the technicians at Oschner when I arrived that I began having a stabbing pain where the lymph nodes were removed. I explained that it began Saturday with only a couple of instances of a stabbing pain during the day. Then Sunday the pain began to increase in numbers and length to about 6 episodes lasting about 5 seconds each with some residual soreness lasting about ten minutes after each episode. Then when I got up this morning the frequency of episodes increased to about one per hour, lasting about 30 seconds with the residual pain coming and going all day.

Guess what they told me. "we've been waiting to see when something would happen. The scar tissue from the surgery and the remaining muscles are fighting the radiation and beginning to tighten up. Don't worry it'll probably get worse."

Well, la-de-da...thanks for letting me know. Then they explained that the myriad reactions to radiation are so different that its pointless to scare a patient about the possible effects that may or may not occur. They told me to alert them to any effects like this and if my doctor thinks anything is unusual he'll get right on it. Thursday they took a complete battery of x-rays to see if there was any discernible damage occurring to my bones. Everything seemed okay so we continue on. Let's see what the rest of this week brings.