Have come to a screeching halt......April 29. 2010

So I started RXT (radiation treatment) April 22 & 23..Thursday and Friday again after being delayed because of the RXT burn on my chest . My RXTs had been redirected and re calibrated in such a way that only the two small areas that showed up on the PET scan would get hit...X-ray folks call it a "boost" and my friend Pat Holloway calls "stun".

Mind you I don't feel the effects while the RTX are being giving but it
does show up some time later. Like Saturday morning. I'll just say it was really bad in the mid chest especially when swallowing anything including saliva because my esophagus is taking a hit .

I had been coasting through all of this with using Tylenol PM for pain and a little extra benadryl to help me sleep at night.. I even scoffed when the oncology nurse practitioner asked about needing pain meds like Oxycodone and I said Tylenol PM work just fine..why would you need anything more?

I really should have called the Radiology Oncologist doctor and got something for the pain but I managed to find some left over diluaded from my shoulder surgery from last year.
Monday by 8:30am my RXT's were cancelled , I left with scripts for Fentanyl patches and Morphine and in two hours later life was much better. Wednesday I had another RXT and followed with a DR. appt . with my Chemo Oncologist for labs etc.

I knew I was tired and had been sleeping a lot, I had been told that chemo and radiation really do take it out of you but one of my labs, the Hg ( normal is 11.0-17.0) came back at 7.0.. This is the one that carries the oxygen around in the blood and in 5 days I had dropped from 10.1 to 7.0.
Those nice people put me in the hospital and gave me 2 units of packed RBCs and the color returned to my cheeks.
My white cell count is 1.0. (normal is 4-11) I will be staying home and washing my hands often.

Tomorrow I have another Dr. appt with the chemo doctor. I have to get my white count up
before I can have my last 4 RXTs and then I'll be done. With the blood transfusions and a little extra hemoglobin floating around in there the RTX burn on my chest should heal faster too.

Blood transfusions make you feel soooo good....... I'd have one for breakfast if I could.

Unfortunately this would happen during build week of the Soldotna Community Playground that Dana has worked on for the past year. I sure wanted to attend and build something.
Much thanks you to my sister Amy who flying up from Georgia to take my place instead and help Dana wherever needed.

And as always a thank you to Pat Ho, who is my chauffeur with angel's wings and get me to my appointments when there have been many times I didn't want to go.
When you say a prayer for me, say one for Pat's own daughter named ......Dayna.
Pat goes a back to the same department in the afternoon...and waits for her daughter to have her RXT....just like she waits for me.... thanks Pat.