No worries about global warming though because less than a week after I was done my daily drives, school was canceled because of a -39 degree Celsius forecast. We now have snow and are in a winter deep freeze. God knew that I did not need extra stress of driving and so was taking care of me.
Warning adult content: you may wish to skip the following 3 paragraphs if you do not have a strong stomach.
Please, do not feel sorry for me. This is something that most radiation patients go through. I am only giving the experience a voice so that others may understand the experience a little better. And maybe someone may be inspired to create a new a better treatment. I am sure that in 5 to 10 years people will look back and just shake their heads at what cancer patients had to endure in 2012.
John 14:16 "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever." Praise the Lord for the 'Helper' that I have been given to get through this.
Going to radiation treatments became work! Alas, naps have become my best friend. Radiation did not make me ill except that sometimes I had and still have a metallic taste in my mouth and have lost my appetite (minor details compared to chemo). Now 9 days after my radiations were complete, I take my hat off to anyone who has gone through radiation and have invented a new word ... clumping ... it describes what radiated skin does at it leaves the body ... a sunburned person would peel but the word peeling just does not do justice to what my skin is doing. Bubbling, blistering, oozing and just looking painfully disgusting. It has sort of a raw hamburger appearance. So across my chest and under my armpits I have radiation burns in all of its glory. Every morning and evening I change my dressings. I wash off the left over cream (Glaxal Base) in the shower and then gently use a cotton swab to remove anything that is left on my skin. I then paint on a thick layer of Glaxal Base cream onto which I apply a layer of gauze. Under each armpit I put a clean maxi-pad because they have a little more structure to them and so seem to stay in place better than the gauze. I am taking prescription pain killers. I tried to do it without them but found myself sucked into a vortex of pain and agony that I was not handling well. The nurse who administered my herspetin at the Tom Baker yesterday evening gave me the ever repeated talk on germs and staying away from them. She also apologized over and over again for having to touch my skin (in order to access my port-o-cath) but there was nothing else she could do. I am so grateful that my husband was able to drive me in for my appointment.
Earlier this week my Aunty Fern emailed me a verse from Lamentations 3: 22 & 23. "The Lord's unfailing love and mercy still continue fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise." I am not sure, if she knew but this verse has given me the strength to get through this last bit of my treatments. Just to know that each morning as I looked in the mirror at my skin that God's love was being renewed in me. He again was giving me the strength to get through. I can not help but to juxtapose my cancer experience to that described in Lamentations. The city of Jerusalem was under the siege of Babylon and had been reduced to rubble and burned along with the temple. Jeremiah tearfully describes the funeral of this once great city. In God, Jeremiah finds hope and comfort. I pray that like Jerusalem, I will put this experience behind me and rebuild.
Happy to New Year!! And many blessings to all. :)
