Moving on to the next phase of treatment

Last Friday I had my last chemotherapy treatment. I am so happy that phase is over. While the last treatment wasn't as bad as the previous one, I did still throw up at the hospital immediately after it was over. I can envision the nausea and other side effects only getting worse as time goes on, so I'm glad to be done with chemo.

Yesterday I had my radiation planning appointment. It went smoothly. I talked to the resident doctor, Dr. Wood for a bit. He explained the planning process again and we talked a bit about side effects and other questions I had. He mentioned again that the chance of getting another cancer from the radiation is .25% per year. Because I'm relatively young (I sure don't feel like it anymore!) that means in 20 years, I'll have a 5% chance and in 40 years a 10% chance.

During the actual planning session, I laid on the table of a CT machine while the radiation technicians got me into place and made various markings, took measurements and photos. They even took a photo of my face just for the purpose of visual identification - so they can physically see that they are giving radiation to the right person.

Part of the preparations included them making a mold of my face. A technician took a warm plastic mesh with a hard frame on three sides and stretched the mesh down over my face and chin and connected it to the cradle on the table where my head was laying. Although I was trying to keep my eyes closed (the stretchy mesh kept pulling them open), I was able to see and breathe through the holes in the mesh. I was warned that some people have claustrophobic issues when this is done, but I didn't experience that. Once in place, the mesh was cooled off to help it harden and keep its shape.

Once everything was ready, they scanned me using the CT machine - with the mesh mask still keeping me in place. The doctor will use the images from the CT scan to determine how to set up the radiation so that it radiates the areas that should receive it and avoids other areas as much as possible. I was also marked in three places with a blue marker - one on my chest and one on each side near the top of my ribs. The markings were covered with clear stickers to help keep from washing off. These markings, along with the mask, will help them ensure that I am lined up properly every day.

After the planning was over, the nurse practitioner wanted to talk to me more about side effects. She gave me a booklet with details as well as some special lotion and special mouthwash. The lotion is for the area of my skin that gets radiated, because it will start to look sunburned over time. The radiation from the sun is how people get a tan or sunburned, so the effects of the radiation treatments are similar.

I was given my first appointment for radiation. It starts October 5th and will continue every weekday for 3.5 to 4 weeks. That gives me just over a week of normalness before the next phase of my cancer treatment starts. Although going to the hospital every day will suck, at least it will be over in a month and I'll (hopefully) be cancer-free and back to a normal life in time for the holidays.

Light The Night Walk: Results

Last night was the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light The Night Walk. Although my feet still haven't forgiven me, I had a great time! I got to meet some great people and I think we all really felt part of something awesome! Team Reese's Pieces raised over $3200 online plus some cash and check donations that were turned in at the event. All in all, the walk raised over $180,000 for LLS.


Everyone attending the walk got a lighted balloon to walk with. Sarah, Rebecca and I received white balloons and special shirts signifying that we are cancer survivors.


Walkers there showing their support received a red balloon while those walking in memory of someone received a gold balloon. Over 1000 people walked for two miles along the lakefront and back.


I am so happy to have participated in the event and am grateful to everyone that walked on or donated to our team. We were more successful than I ever thought we would be. I can't wait for next year to try and raise even more!

Below are random photos from the walk of our team:

Light The Night Walk: Update

It's only a few days until the Light The Night Walk for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This past Saturday, we held our yard sale and lemonade stand as planned. Two of our friends that are walking on Thursday, Jada and Vivian, participated in the sale, while we also received additional items to sell from my mom and our friends Nicole, Jerry and Heather.

We decided not to put prices on our yard sale items in hopes that people would offer more since all proceeds were going to charity. I'm not sure that actually was the case as people seemed to be bargain hunting and there were quite a few things that sold for less than I would have liked. The good thing is some people did give above and beyond, so that helped make up for the cheapskates. :)

We sold cups of lemonade for any donation amount and candy bars for $1 each. Vivian also grilled hot dogs and sold them for $1 during the sale. Although we still had a lot of items left at the end of the sale (that were then donated to Goodwill), we did raise over $260 from the yard sale, plus the additional donations from the lemonade, hot dog, and candy sales. In the end, over $300 was raised for LLS.

I was worried for awhile that our team may not make the $2000 goal I set for it a few weeks back, but as of right now, the team has raised $2190 online. Maria (with help from Vivian) has been selling candy bars at work to help reach her goal. Once the yard sale and candy bar proceeds are submitted and everybody turns in any cash and check donations they have received, our team will have raised over $2500 - probably more!

Remember, it's not too late to donate! Click here to donate to me or click here to donate to Maria. Any amount is appreciated!

Why doesn't alcohol come in other scents?

My treatment last Thursday SUCKED! Chemo days are always long days, but in addition to treatment, I was also seeing my oncologist. I'm not sure what it was exactly, but I threw up several times that day. I went in at noon to have my blood drawn for lab work as usual. I was a bit nervous because more often than not, they have trouble accessing my port and the fact that I nearly threw up from the saline and/or heparin they push through it during my previous treatment. I noticed immediately that just the smells of the hospital, such as alcohol wipes or alcohol-based cleaning products or "clean" as Maria calls the smell, starts making me feel queasy. (Note to Self: Start bringing spray air freshener along to treatments.) I explained to the nurse how I nearly tossed my cookies two weeks earlier so she agreed to push the saline in slowly. It helped, but I did still taste it, especially at the end when she had to push faster to clear the blood out of the IV line. After the saline flush, they inject heparin, which helps prevent blood clots from forming in the port line. The heparin tastes like the saline, only worse. I made it out of the lab without vomiting, although I could tell I was not out of the clear yet.

We had almost an hour until I saw Dr. Fenske so Maria and I left the hospital and went to Bruegger's Bagels nearby so I could eat lunch. I thought I would be fine, but it hit me in the parking lot before we went inside to eat. I threw up. Luckily, not much came up since I had barely eaten anything for breakfast. The good thing was that the parking lot was behind the store, so I wasn't vomiting on Wisconsin Ave. at least. I was embarrassed a bit though when I saw a couple people come around the corner to the lot just in time to witness me puking. I probably ruined their lunch.

As usual, the doctor's office was behind. My appointment was scheduled for 1pm. I think the nurse practitioner, Julie, came in around 1:45pm. She asked me the normal questions. I explained how I had been feeling like crap lately, even on the days where I normally feel great. She checked my blood test results and everything looked normal. I also told her how I was becoming more sensitive to the saline and heparin and how I threw up after having my blood drawn. She suggested I take a lorazepam prior to coming to chemo as nausea can be triggered by many things.

After Julie left the room, it was approximately 10 more minutes before Dr. Fenske came in to talk to me. He didn't really tell me anything new, but he did clarify the results from my last PET scan a bit. He said while the CT portion of the scan showed a small amount of cancer still, the PET scan was "negative." I asked if that meant that I was cancer-free. He didn't come right out and say I was cancer-free, but said that sometimes the CT scan shows lymph nodes that just stay swollen or possible scar tissue. He explained the PET scan shows "active cancer," which in my case, was negative. So that's good to know. Plus, I'll have had 4 more chemo treatments after that scan, so I should really be in good shape then. He set me up to have my next PET scan in the beginning of December, which will be around 6 weeks after I'm finished with radiation.

After my appointment with Dr. Fenske, we headed to chemo. Of course, even though we were late (due to the doctor's office running late), I still had to wait around a bit. The chemo itself went normally, but when it was almost over, I went to use the bathroom, and began throwing up. It really sucked and it just kept coming. When I was finished, the nurse gave me more fluids through my IV and ordered me some liquid lorazepam from the pharmacy to inject in me. Eventually we left and I laid down on the sofa almost immediately after getting home.

Later that night, I did not feel good whatsoever. I had the chills and was super cold. I took my temperature and it was 99.5, so I knew I had a touch of a fever. I fell asleep on the couch after awhile and woke up extremely hot and sweaty. I took my temperature again and it had rose to 100.3. I knew if it got to 100.5 or higher I would have to call the hospital, per their standard instructions. I started to cool down almost immediately after waking up though, so I didn't have to.

Since then, I've been trying to take it easy so that I don't feel so exhausted all the time. I think my usual schedule of feeling yucky for a week followed by a week of feeling normal has ended. I'm trying not to run myself down by doing too much, which is not always easy since I have stuff I want to or need to get done. The next few days won't be easy because we have our charity yard sale and lemonade stand benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society this Saturday and I still haven't started getting things together for it. But, I know in the end, it will come together somehow. Hopefully we will have a good turnout and good weather. My friend Jada is trekking down from Port Washington to join us. I'm really looking forward to it.

The good news for me is that I only have one more chemotherapy treatment left. I'm so happy because I can only imagine the chemo getting harder and harder to deal with from this point on. Even today, nearly a week after chemo, I still feel nauseous at times. Certain smells and thoughts trigger it. It was even hard to type some of this post at times. I know I still have radiation treatments coming soon, but at this point, I'm almost welcoming the change.

The last two weeks

Since my last treatment two weeks ago, I've been feeling pretty crappy at some point each day. It mainly comes at night. I feel very run down and exhausted as well as cold. I cover up with a blanket and have even been wearing a sweatshirt around the house. It seems like this started when the weather changed from warm summer to cool fall. I seem to be one of those people that is affected by drastic changes in the weather, but usually I only feel bad for a day or so. This has lasted well over a week - since last week Tuesday.

Maria, my parents and even my friend Patti Anne told me they think it's related to me trying to do too much too soon after my last treatment. They are probably right. We've been having our bathroom remodeled and last week I was running lots of errands and was in and out of multiple stores each day. On Saturday, we went to the zoo, then to dinner, and then out with friends to celebrate my earning of an Associate degree. On Sunday we attended my father-in-law's birthday party, then later that night and the next morning I painted our bathroom. Again, I felt like crap at some point each day. The last day or two I've been trying to take it easy and relax because I want to make sure I get my 2nd to last chemotherapy treatment tomorrow. I'm going to tell Julie, the nurse practitioner, how I've been feeling to see if she is concerned about it. I think its probably a combination of the cold yucky weather, running myself ragged, and maybe even a low white blood cell count.

I'm really looking forward to being done with chemotherapy. Although I was initially scared of getting radiation treatments, at this point, I'm OK with it and almost welcome the change. Although I know there are people having to go through worse chemotherapy treatments than the type I receive, this hasn't been a walk on the beach for me and the end cannot come soon enough.