Scanned, Mapped and Ready to Go!

This week was another interesting one - they all are these days but I am thankful for each one that goes by! I am starting to feel better everyday. (When I say better, I mean less "chemicalized!) Coffee and chocolate taste okay again - not sure if that is a good thing though! I was able to run twice this week (THANKS AMY & JESS) - it felt so good to move even if it was pitch black and cold out and my eyes and nose kept running down my face - I felt a sense of plain giddiness that I was able to run three miles! How did I ever do 26.2? My hair is coming back and that too has been interesting. I'll post photos soon. May need to hold onto my wig longer than originally planned...

On Tuesday my friend Erin (THANK YOU!) accompanied me to the city to be my "sanity check" as I met with the radiology group who will become my newest friends as I begin to see them daily starting this coming Monday for my radiation treatments. I have found it is always good to have someone else with you to hear those things a nurse may say that you may not. Erin had questions for the nurse I didn't think of: what fabrics should I avoid? Is deodorant okay? In case you are wondering, cotton against the skin is best and deodorant is fine!

The nurse marked my skin with a sharpie marker and I had two CAT scans - one laying on my stomach, the other on my back. They would be comparing the percentage of heart and lung tissue that would be exposed to radiation and selecting the pose in which the least amount would be. Seems reasonable right? This is the clinical study I am in! This is not what they normally do! It will soon become the norm as the doctors evaluate the impact of three weeks of treatment as opposed to six which is currently the standard. I am so amazed by the research aspect being done about breast cancer. I am so grateful for all of those women who volunteered to be study subjects in the past - they allowed me to benefit by having only a lumpectomy; by only having 6 lymph nodes removed; and by changing the chemo protocol I was on. I hope that one day when three weeks of radiation is the norm someone is just as thankful for those of us who helped them get there!

The sharpie marks were covered with clear adhesive bandages and I was told they needed to remain there until Friday. Uh, okay - that was three days away but they stayed there! So, Friday morning I returned to the NYU Cancer Center to be tattooed and found out my treatments would be given while I lay face up, not what I expected but I'll get more detail Monday when I go for my first zapping. I was told I could expect some fatigue and possible reddening /thickening of the skin in the radiated area but that will all go away. I think the hardest part will be the commute to and from NYC!

Last, I do need to give a huge shout out to my sister-in-law Christine for an amazing Mexican meal that Greg and I so greatly enjoyed!!! THANK YOU!