Last day!

Today is my last day of radiation -- out of 30 in total! After the 15th day, the burns started to come out and I couldn't walk around without a cream soothing compress and ibuprofen... but I went on with life and made do and went back to the radiation rack daily.

Not sure if I am special (most cancer patients get about 15 radiations on average, I am told), but on my last day the hospital staff gave me a soap bubble shower spewing out of a hippo with musical accompaniment. I was even allowed to take a picture of the "torture chamber"! :)

So it is a huge relief on many levels: 

• First that it is over, in terms of cancer treatment regiment that was prescribed so far; 
• Secondly, now that the radiation is over and I can start to heal the burns (they should recover in two weeks they say) 
• Thirdly, I feel "born again" and can now plan my life beyond just the next week. I am thinking of picking up accordion playing if I manage to get one for less than $400, and organizing that fateful trip to Iceland that I was planning for my last birthday in the middle of chemo...

Birthday

I am a big birthday person --- I always celebrate and always over the top , if possible. My motto: we only live once and should savor any excuse for celebration.

Of course, I had these grand plans to spend my birthday in Iceland this year to see the aurora borealis, or more commonly known as Northern Lights, which is best viewed end of March as the weather tends to cooperate. Well, I guess this will now be my next year plan, so this year we had to do what we had.

I must say, I'm feeling pretty lucky and grateful to have such amazing friends. They really know how to make a birthday girl feel special, even if I had to put my Iceland dreams on hold. 

I had two friends fly in for the celebration -- one all the way from Tbilisi, the other from San Francisco. And they cooked up a feast out of this world for more than 20 people!  And the decorations! My other friends really went all out with those strings of balloons, cakes and the birthday crown. I felt like a queen for the day. It was just the kind of over-the-top celebration I love. 

I got a lovely and unexpected slide show down the memory lane and serval musical numbers about Baba Yaga (funny witches) performed by my friends!!! I mean, who needs to see Northern Lights when you have a group of friends singing songs about witches, right?

Sure, the morning started with an x-ray, but once I got home it was a blast. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life. Overall, it was an incredible day and I feel so grateful for the people in my life. 

4th day after 5th chemo

This time around for chemotherapy side-effects I got my regular fatigue, a bit of arthritic pain and something new --- constant headaches for several days. Dull, throbbing headaches. Again, all of these are easily managed. 

Also, after talking with my oncologist, I started taking Magnesium (which eases arthritis) and Calcium with vitamin D supplements daily. So maybe these made everything a bit better or maybe it's just that by now I already sort of know how to deal with most of these side-effects.

I even managed to pre-celebrate Chinese New Year with friends on Friday, and then again at our place on Sunday!!

On the other hand, it turns out that I did get a bit of a brain fog (chemo related, as I try to reassure myself) .

Turns out I miscalculated the total chemotherapy treatments for the first cycle -- there are 12 vs 8 as I originally counted and I still have another 7 to go.

So it turns out my next one, this Thursday, will be the coveted half-way point.... But I did get lots of positive vibes last week, thinking that I already reached it 😀 which in itself is a plus.

2023

 

Happy New Year! May it bring peace and health!!! 

We kept up with our traditional celebrations and even managed to pull together half decent table. We got to dress up, watch a traditional New Year movie, burn the last minute wishes over the candle with a sip of champagne...

Not a bad start to a New Year!