February 13, 2007

  • Graduation Day pt. 2

    Well, radiation therapy is OVER!!!!!  OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER!!!!!

    The radiation itself can work for up to 8 more weeks, so keep praying over those x-rays.  But I don't have to go in every day.  WOOHOO!!!

    We had quite the party to celebrate, too.  Since Ms. Pumpin-Stuff is now portable, I made a yellow cake (from a mix) and put chocolate icing on it.  Paul and Stephanie BOTH wanted to take me to treatment, so we all went.

    When my treatment was over, we broke out the cake.  All of the docs and nurses and techs and patients had some, including my 84 y.o. buddy, Chuck, who also graduated yesterday.  Poor Chuck was having a real "chemo brain" day, so he kept asking why we were having cake.  Bless his heart.  I made it primarily for HIM, but he didn't remember that it was his graduation day.

    Stephanie does hula, and is leaving on Friday for a convention.  She had a new dance to "The Prayer" (with the foreign language being Hawaiian... it was SO COOL!), and I hadn't seen it.  So, she did it in the waiting room.  It was beautiful, and everyone was eating cake and stopped to watch her.  They were so happy to have food AND entertainment.  Even Dr. P stoppped to watch. He also told me that my cake was wonderful.

    They gave me a new big water mug that looks just like the ones you get in the hospital (the one I've been lugging around everywhere), but it has a purple lid and says "Penrose Cancer Center" on it.

    Hugs all around, and we left.  I promised to come back down to see them when I come in to see Dr. H.  That team went through hell with me, so it was a bit hard to say good-bye.  But the fact that this part of treatment is over made it all worth it.

    They told me that THIS week will actually be the worst for fatigue, but that starting next week, I should start feeling like myself again.  Which will be wonderful.  Dr. H is going to give me a month-ish to get stronger before we go into full-dose chemo.  So, with the exception of Ms. Pumpin-Stuff, and the thinning hair, I'm pretty much a normal person.  The radiation burns will start to go away, so once my burns fade, I'll even look normal.  Just skinny.

    I'm really ready for food to start sounding good again.  I didn't even eat any of my cake.  I know that the feeding tube and Ms. Pumpin-Stuff are keeping me fed.  And I also know that Dr. H wants the tube to stay in place until I'm done with chemo.  But it would just be nice to do things like eat with my family.  I even made dinner last night since Ciera and Paul had a meeting, and Mimi was sick.  But I didn't want to eat it.  It's just wierd.

    Oh well.  This was a happy post. No more complaining. Radiation is done!  YAY!!!

    Ciera made the spring play.  She is so excited.  They're doing Pygmalion, and she's in the ensemble, but she does have speaking lines.  According to her, she has the biggest part in the ensemble.  It's a good place to start. 

    She came home from tryouts very frustrated with the way the theater teacher ran them.  She said that she didn't have a chance based on the way he was running things.  I've not seen her that frustrated in a long time.  So Paul suggested that she go talk to the theater teacher.  I never in a million years thought she would, but she DID!  And evidently, it made a difference.  I'm very proud of her.

     

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