Another Countdown

I started yet another countdown last week….and it’s an exciting one because it’s the last major phase of my breast cancer treatment.  I began radiation last Tuesday, which is 5 days a week for 6 weeks.  I now officially have 6 sessions under my belt, with 24 more to go.  As long as everything stays on schedule, I should be done on June 13^th.  So far, radiation is very pleasant.  I don’t have any side effects yet and the routine is easy.  I drive to a hospital in Appleton, undress in the locker room, put on a fleece poncho that a nice volunteer made for me, wait for the tech to come get me for my 8:20am timeslot, lie in the tube for about 12 minutes , get dressed, and am on the road back to work by about 8:40.  They even have a radio station playing in the tube while I get the treatment – talk about relaxing!  They practically have to drag me out of there when it’s done. The routine might start to get to me at some point, and apparently lots of people experience fatigue later in the radiation cycle, but so far I’m good.  And compared to everything else I’ve been through over the past 7 months, this seems like a piece of cake!

I also made it through my first full week back to work last week.  I’ll admit I was a bit nervous my first day, but everyone was so happy to see me and it all went fine (my co-workers even had flowers and balloons waiting for me!).  I even ditched my hat by later in the week and decided to just go to work with my very short hair (but at least I have hair covering my entire head now!).  It was definitely tiring getting back into the swing of things and I still had several appointments to run to during the week, but I made it.  And because I work so close to home, I even slipped away during lunchtime one day and went home for a quick power nap!

I performed in a band concert on Friday night.  I only played on one piece, but it was a very special piece because it was written by Ed about 12 years ago in honor of our engagement.  He spoke to the audience and told them the story behind it before we played which was neat – and two of my good friends attended the concert which was very exciting!

Our Wisconsin weather has been pretty chilly and dreary for the past several days, so I’m looking forward to some sunshine later this week and hopefully a nice, outdoorsy weekend.  Hope all of my blog readers have a great week, too!