Happy Halloween!!
Hi Friends and Family,
I hope all is well with everyone. I think of you often and look forward to seeing you soon. I am nearing the end of my radiation treatments and all is going as expected. I have had some odd side effects and am not sure if it comes from the radiation or the past chemo treatments. Here is what is happening....the normal discoloration and sun burning of my breast is happening. The open wound is almost but not quite healed up. My breast skin is shrinking and causing my right arm to feel a pulling effect when I extend it. I have to do a lot of stretching to keep it from becoming a more serious issue. I am experiencing tiredness. I just ignore it and keep on keeping on. The not so normal effects I have are that I start itching all over. It feels like I have been attacked by no-see-ums on every part of my body. I have no redness or swelling and rubbing my skin with my hands helps. It usually stops after a few minutes. I never know when I will have an episode of itching. I have also had an aching in my breast. Kind of like a toothache that comes and goes. A few days ago I began feeling if all my bones ached. When I sit for a short while and get up I feel like my bones are 100 years old. I get up really slow and move really slow until I get loosened up. I will be talking to the Doctor about that, (which concerns me the most). Some of the side effects of the chemo is osteoporosis, leukemia and other autoimmune diseases and that is always in the back of my mind when I begin to have a symptom I have not had before. Maybe I am just getting the flu or something? I hope that one day I won't think anything is out of the ordinary when I have a symptom. I hope so.
It has now been 4 months and 4 days since my last chemo treatment and my hair is now about 1 inch long and starting to curl, thank goodness. I was worried I would have straight hair! I am posting some photos of my hair and of one of my radiation treatments. (I finally got it downsized.) The camera is at my feet and between my legs. The technicians placed a pad on my knees to keep my breasts from showing. This is a routine visit. On some visits they take x-rays and photos and take a lot of measurements. I am never on the table for more than 10 minutes. The buzzing is when I am actually getting zapped with radiation. I feel nothing while it is going on.
Please keep my sister, Wanda Adcock and sister in law, Barbara Fincannon in your prayers.
So, have a nice week and Halloween and don't let the Goblins get you! Hahaha.
Hugs and love,
Glenda
