Recovery

My skin is healing so quickly - what a miracle. The process has been helped along lately by some wonderful cream my sister Cindy sent me. It looks like mint green mud, has a delicate smell and is specifically formulated for skin burned by radiation.
Paste in this link for more info
http://elara-skin-care.com/radiation_burn_skin_care.html
It will take awhile to rid myself of the fatigue, especially since I often operated in a semi-exhasted state even before the treatments began. But if every night were like Monday, I know I would recover in no time.
What was so special about Monday night? We spent it at the Ann Bean Mansion in Stillwater, courtesy of our friend Chris. We were the only guests that night so it was especially quiet and peaceful. The hostess, Erin, is calm and charming and the house is beautiful and comfortable. We both slept like rocks and spent our waking hours reading and walking around Stillwater. Highly recommended: http://www.annbeanmansion.com/

0! Blast off!

Such sweet relief to be done! I surprised myself by getting a little choked up as I walked into the clinic for my last treatment. A combination of happiness and fatigue and recollection and thankfulness, I suppose. Certainly, I have no reason to be sad.
Thanks to all of you who have walked with me and prayed for me and supported me in so many ways. I will always be grateful for that.
You may want keep checking in on this blog from time to time. I've got a couple additional postings planned including pictures of the Cancer Care Center and staff and the results of my follow up appointment with the oconlogist in June. May also post an 'ode to Timothy', a fond remembrance of our 1997 Ford Escort. He almost, but not quite, carried me to and from all 33 treatments and provided reliable transportation for me and my boys for over 10 years.

1!

Don't be surprised if you see the flash of fireworks and hear the beat of marching bands emanating from St. John's Cancer Care Center in Maplewood around ten to 4 this afternoon. That's when I plan to start celebrating the end of my radiation treatments and the beginning of my cancerfree future.
After I left the clinic yesterday, I felt very upbeat and fooled myself into thinking I was back to normal again. I charged around doing a bunch of errands (including browsing the lot at our local Ford dealership in search of a replacment for my car which died on Monday) then hit the wall hard and didn't have the energy to make the taco salad I had planned for supper. So we snacked instead. I helped Abe finish up a poster on Australian animals, looked for cars on Car Soup with Mose and hit the hay around 9:30 pm. Up at 3 (waaaaaay too early) but feeling pretty good and very ready to face this wonderful day.

2

Had my discharge meeting with Dr. Kim yesterday. I'll have a follow up appointment with her in 4 weeks. She looked at my skin and said that it was about as expected and would heal quickly. It's healing already - the stinging and sensitivity lessens from day to day.

3

Same as usual except one day closer to being done!

4 more

The set up for the new treatment fields and related pictures took an hour on Friday, but my next four treatments should go very quickly since there are just two fields.
After 3 days of no radiation, the worst patches have improved a lot and my skin is looking more blotchy as new paler skin replaces the old burned stuff.

5 left

Skin resembles burned blistered strawberries in places. Sounds awful. Looks awful. Feels awful once in awhile, but is ok most of the time.
Along with the lotion I've been using since day one, I am now treating the worst patches with gel sheets. These are very soothing and definitely improve the condition of the skin. The only problem is that they adhere readily to clothing so they're hard to keep in place. This morning I found one lodged in the sleeve of my pyjamas. But I think it migrated there only after it had done it's healing work on my skin.
Today I'll have the first 'booster' treatment. It will be a longer session than normal because it will involve a series of pictures along with the first time set up of the new treatment field. Thankfully, these last treatments will concentrate on an area of skin that is in pretty good shape. But they will take their toll.

6 to go

Same status as yesterday :) Sleeping a bit better lately. My sister Lorrainse asked about this since the timestamps on some of the recent posts were quite early in the morning. Turns out the timezone setting on the blog was wrong and the posts were stamped with a time one hour earlier than they were actually made. I've corrected this to ensure truth-in-blogging.

7 more treatments

Very worn out in the evening. Skin resembles strawberries. But still doing all right.

Eight is great

My skin will be mighty happy when the assault is over.