It's Done

Daily radiation can start to wear on you.  I drive about an hour to get to the Dana Center for a 20 minute radiation then drive an hour home. Going into the Center is starting to make me "sick". The smell of the hand soap makes me nauseous. Even the smell of the mask they snap into place over my face is getting to me.  The one thing I do enjoy is the warm blankets.  Every time I lay on the hard table in the cold room, with my face smashed into the mask the warm blanket it what I look forward to.

I have only 3 more to go. My left shoulder and neck look sunburned.  Under my arm is black and I have scabs in the creases of my arm.  I'm told this will go away, but truthfully I really don't care. Going through all of this, you realize what is really important, and having a black arm pit isn't one of them.

This past week I had an appointment with my Oncologist. The Doctor pulled up my first PET scan  (positron emission tomography scan) a scan that uses a special dye with radioactive tracers to check disease is my body. My left shoulder was bright orange and red.  This shows where the cancer cells are. The cancer was in the lymph nodes under my arm, in my neck, in the muscle and then into the skin. Next the Doctor pulled up my most recent PET scan from January.  My shoulder was a drab gray.  I almost cried.  It was gone. I know my radiologist told me this, but actually seeing it was wonderful.

The Doctor then said he would see me in 3 months for a follow up.  Just on a whim I asked him when I could get my port removed.  He asked where it was located (my right upper chest) and said "Sure,
You don't need it anymore, why have it."  He then joked that he could cut it out himself today, unless I wanted the surgeon to do it.  I opted for the surgeon. 

It was that simple. After 8 months of surgeries, scans, chemo and radiation, it's over.  It's been the longest time in my life, yet it's been a relativity short time in the whole of my life. I'm excited and I am scared.  I'm pretty sure that anytime I feel "off" I will think it's cancer.  I wonder if I can do it without the people at the Center.  I will miss them terribly, as they have been with me every step of the way. So now the final surgery to remove the one thing that remains to show I am sick.  

I'm so thankful for my Church, my family and friends.  Whether they reached out to me or prayed quietly. I am ever grateful.