Cathy's Journey

Time to Celebrate!

On November 4th my family had a great celebration to mark the end of my treatment. For me it is definitely a time to breathe a sigh of relief that I’m done and allow my body to heal. My energy level through radiation was my biggest challenge. Eight plus hours of sleep are still needed for me to get through the day.

I’m extremely thankful to everyone who supported, prayed, and helped me during the last 8 months. I'm not sure I could have gotten through it without you. I now start the fourth stage of treatment which is taking the anti-estrogen drug Femara. I will take this for 5 years. Let’s hope I can tolerate the side effects because its proven to have a greater reduction of breast cancer reoccurrence in certain groups of women. I can only hope and pray that will be the case.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for following me in this journey.

Cathy

Radiation is over! 11/11/11

The third phase of cancer treatment started on September 20th and finished October 27th. Dr. Jeffrey Herman was my radiation oncologist during this time. He prescribed 28 radiation sessions marking three different areas on my chest and under my arm. I got my first tattoo! Well maybe not exactly the kind of tattoo you show off. The markings help them line up the radiation beams for the each session; making each visit after the first couple 10 minutes long. I was happy to get the first appointment of the day at 8:00am allowing me to get in and out with great ease and get to work by 8:45 or so. The first four weeks were fairly uneventful, but the last two weeks and beyond my skin started turning very red, like a sun burn I’ve never seen. Some of the areas around my neck and shoulder remained open, and I had a tough time getting them to dry out and scab over. The doctor recommended a salt/water solution that sounds terrible, but it actually worked. I used a pure aloe gel every where else my body was just red. It’s been three weeks and my skin is shedding like a lizard. It’s not uncomfortable any more, but I’m sure I’ll go through several more layers before I’m done.