Radiation Takes the Lead

Oh. My. God.  My boob hurts.  Radiation has started kicking my ass.  After twenty treatments (only fifteen more to go ~ wahoo!) the side effects have kicked in, big time. I am so. Stinkin'. Tired.  Pretty much all the time.  My skin goes from dark tan to red to blistered to dark tan in phases throughout the day.  It itches like crazy, and out of the blue I get these pains that feel like I'm getting stabbed in the boob with a needle.  And I do know, first hand, what that feels like.  The area under my arm is so dark it looks purple, like a big, nasty bruise.

The doctor tells me that eventually my skin will peel, which will make the itching stop.  I have burn cream with Lidocaine for the pain. People keep telling me to take it easy, to rest, yada yada.  Well, believe me, I would love to.  But you know, I have a job and another job and a home and a cat and a family and myself to take care of.  There's only so much resting I can do before things start to fall apart. I'm literally counting down the days until I'm done with the daily runs to the cancer center. The treatments take less than fifteen minutes but the whole process - getting there, checking in, changing clothes, treatment, changing clothes again, driving home - adds up to over an hour.  In twenty more days, I can use that hour for extra sleep. Right now I just have to power through.

In the meantime, I take it one day, sometimes one hour, at a time.