Radiation Mapping

Monday January 3rd was the first day in my new adventure RADIATION. I went in and spoke with Dr. Thomson who proceeded to explain all of the side effects. He spoke with me about radiating the lymph node area. Apparently the cancer that I had was pretty aggressive - small tumor in the breast, sentinel lymph node cancerous and the cancer growing outside of that node with what he called nodules. I guess you would consider that to be aggressive considering that the tumor in the breast was less than one inch. Anyway there are studies which show that radiating the lymph node area does not really decrease the chance that the cancer will not come back and there are conflicting studies that show that radiating the lymph node area gives you a 20% better chance the cancer will not reoccur.

Since my cancer had decided to grow outside of my lymph node I was not really comfortable not radiating the lymph area. In fact all along I had assumed this is what would happen. I was not prepared that it would be my choice in the end. I asked Dr. Thomson what he would do and he said...radiate. So we are radiating the lymph area. The drawback with this is that I have a 2% - 3% greater chance of developing Lymph edema.

This is also why I can never have blood pressure or blood drawn from my right arm. Apparently when you have lymph nodes removed it can cause Lymph edema. (chronic swelling). I understand this to be a very painful side effect that can be caused by having blood removed, IV's or radiation on the side where the lymph nodes where removed.

In any case I was tattooed on Monday with little dots that look like freckles. Until this day I had always assumed that I wanted a tattoo. However I am sure that when they placed the dot just under my collarbone I totally changed my mind about every wanting a tattoo just because it sounds like fun.

They did CT scans so they will know where to line up and aim the lasers so as to avoid any major organ involvement (lungs, heart, etc.) I hope that they have a good aim; I am quite fond of my lungs and heart. Oh and by the way he said my lungs look fine (pretty good for an ex smoker).

So on Tuesday January 11th I have my first appointment for radiation. I probably will not notice any side effects until 3 weeks into the therapy. In total I have 30 treatments every day except Saturday and Sunday.
I chose to do the procedure at 11 AM and use my lunch hour.

So at least I will have an extremely good tan on the right upper side of my body, complete with the nice scar and hole left from the tissue removed. DAMN! I am so sexy.