Gross Picture Included

So far this week has been boring.  There have been no new major events with my tumor and it's treatment, and no new discoveries as to it's James Dean status.  So, this week's blog entry will be about radiation sunburns!

I realized earlier today (while I was getting my radiation treatment ironically) that I keep talking about radiation sunburns, but have yet to show you what it looks like.  Here is a picture of my most impressive "sunburn" behind my left ear:

The front of the same ear has a sunburn as well, but the sunburn it has just looks like peeling skin.  I did talk to Dr. Stille about the sunburn behind my left ear today, and he let me know that it has gone past the sunburn point and should now considered more of a regular burn like you would get from a hot stove.  Ewww.    I now have doctor's orders to put aloe vera on it at least twice a day, because there really isn't much that can be done about it until I am done with my radiation treatments.  I am still very happy that I passed my hearing test for this ear with flying colors.  Apparently this ear cooks well and is sufficiently stubborn when it is ordered to listen to noises produced by others.

On a final note, my blonde hair patch still exists and has not fallen out.  This could be "unique" hair I get when it all grows back . . .      

Marshmallows, Enough Said

My husband has now become a hair stylist.  It is looking like every Sunday is going to be the time allotted for my head shaving, with him handling the razor.  80% of my head is missing hair, however, I still have the rebellious hair trying to form a very slow growing mohawk down the middle of my head.  My mohawk hair is still dark brown, so even though it didn't grow any more than a man's five o'clock shadow over the last week, it is pretty visible.  The best thing to shave it with?  A woman's leg razor.  So men, if you are married and need a razor to shave your balding head, use your wife's.  (Just make sure you have her permission first, otherwise you might end up outside either underground or in the doghouse).  Here is a picture of Rock getting ready to test his new profession on my head:

He really did do a good job, but he did find something that he thinks is really cool.  I'm still undecided.  When he was shaving my mohawk hair, he discovered a patch of unexpected hair at the top of my forehead/skull lump.  This little patch of hair was growing back in . . . and was bright blond.  It is so blond you couldn't really see it, only feel it because it blended into my white scalp.  This either means that I am going to become a half blond/half brunette when all my hair comes back, or that it is just temporary hair that will fall out soon and grow back in brunette.  Maybe I made it too well know that I would like my hair to come back blond, and only some of my hair cells listened.  Perhaps I'll get a couple neon green cells to even it out.

I have also discovered a new food that still tastes delicious; marshmallows.  Last night I made myself some hot cocoa, and ended up eating more marshmallows than the hot cocoa itself.  The fact that marshmallows don't have a taste other than sweet goodness must be why it is so wonderful.  I have a husband who is wiling to shave my head, and a bag of marshmallows as needed . . . I am one lucky woman!    

Battle of the Bulge (Pun Intended)

Nineteen radiation treatments down, eleven more to go!   I have hit a point now where I actually enjoy going to my radiation treatments because I know that the end of them is in the near future.  The more I go to, the fewer are left!  

I gave myself a challenge this week.  Every Wednesday when I receive a radiation treatment, I get to have a meeting with Dr. Stille, my radiologist.  In my meeting with him, the whole point of it is that I can come in with any questions I may have about my treatment and hopefully get them answered.  Well, this Wednesday I went in with a mission . . . to convince him to reduce/get rid of my steroid prescription so I can regain my ballooning face.  (My face has been ballooning enough that the people who are giving me my radiation treatment each day were having a hard time getting my radiation mask to fit, even with my lack of hair.  Plus, I really would love to have my jawline and cheekbones back)  Now here is the tricky thing about this mission; my steroid prescription was not given to me by Dr. Stille (my radiologist), it was given to me by Dr. O (my brain surgeon).  I will not be seeing Dr. O again for another two and a half weeks, and he kept me on my steroid prescription because of the fact I was being given radiation treatments by Dr. Stille.  Whew!

I learned yesterday that there a big advantages to being a biologist and teaching middle-schoolers for a living.  I was successful in my debate with Dr. Stille!  I truly don't think he has ever had a patient question any decisions he has been in charge of, because he seemed a bit in shock when I asked him if the amount of steroid I was receiving was really being beneficial to my radiation treatment.  I am happy to say, that after some negotiations, that Dr. Stille reduced my steroid prescription by half, and after two weeks at their now reduced level, I can begin taking my steroids every other day.  After one week of every other day, I can be done with them!  Yeah!  Thank you to all of my biology and education professors that I have ever had; you are awesome.

Yesterday I was also lucky enough for UPS to deliver my next shipment of chemo drugs.  I have a feeling that the company that makes my Temodar is making more money off of it.  Now each pill comes individually wrapped, but still stuffed inside a prescription container:

The small container is what 15 days worth of prescription was before, the three larger
containers are what 15 days looks like now.

 In addition to the increased container size, they also now include much more information.  Before I had a twelve page packet listing off all side-effects, drug interactions, etc.  Now, I get a twelve page packet, and two sets of additional information on the chemo drugs.  One page (the page without drugs on it in the picture)  describes how the drug works, dosage calculations, the pill dosage color code, sources or research, and a least one graph for each piece of information.  The other page (the page with the drugs on it) is a repeat in much smaller print of my twelve page side-effects packet.  Anyway, to make a long story short, I now will be housing scissors in my Ziplock bag-o-drugs so I can cut open three little packets of individually wrapped pills a day.  These chemo drugs and I are going to have a close knit relationship, but I avidly look forward to the relationship collapse in six months.  

      

    

You Fooled Me For the Last Time Mr. Bond!

It's official!  My head is now shaved, and I will say, it feels soooo much better than it did before.  Before this my head itched constantly with all the broken hairs that kept falling out.  Now my scalp is free!  Since I don't have any more hair to lose now, it does unfortunately mean that our cat has won the shedding award since he is continuing to lose his hair on my lap as I type.

The best part of this was finding out that I actually have a fairly smooth head.  Granted, there is my scar and a lumpy spot on my forehead from some bone they dealt with during surgery, but my head is mostly smooth. It was a very pleasant surprise.  Going into this my husband remember his favorite Shel Silverstein poem and spent about an hour searching through his books to find it:

WAVY HAIR

I thought that I had wavy hair

Until I shaved.  Instead,

I find that I have straight hair

And a very wavy head.

Thankfully I now know that this poem is not about my head, just my husband's.  The other cool thing is that I am now able to see my entire scar from brain surgery.  It actually looks pretty good considering how long and serious the surgery was.  

You can also see pretty well in this picture where I had no hair, and where hair still existed.  As you can see, the hair that I still had present would of made a pretty good mohawk if I was feeling adventurous.  The only annoying thing is that the lumpy section of my skull from surgery above my eye is more visible, but it gave me an excellent reason to go shopping.  (Just so you know, all hats at Target are 50% off right now.  I am now stocked up for my winter baldness.)

I am also happy to say that I have now hit the halfway point of my radiation treatment.  As of Monday, I will only have three weeks to go!  I'll still have my chemotherapy for another six months after radiation ends, but both the doctors and I believe that I can put up with that since my immune system is doing better than expected.  Possibly the best part about radiation ending in three weeks is that I will finally be allowed to stop taking steroids.  They have had me on steroids to avoid swelling in my brain tissue. The doctors have had me on steroids for just over two months now, and while they may give men muscle and overall hotness (but not brains unfortunately), in ladies they make our heads and stomachs balloon.  I used to have a jawline, mostly flat stomach, and cheek bones, but the steroids have other ideas.  I work out at least 20 - 30 minutes everyday, which has given me very nicely toned arms and legs, but the steroids just have to make it complicated elsewhere.  On the positive side, since my current radiation/chemo is overall going so well, it looks like I'll be able to return to work the first week in March.  I believe that is very happy news to end my first hairless blog post on. :-) (Oh, and thanks Jen for the advice on earrings when your head is shaved; it prompted my husband to get me some nice sets of dangle earrings for my birthday.)    

Donald Trump Really Does Need a New Haircut

While I am writing this, my husband has literally locked himself in our bedroom.  Why?  He is wrapping a gift for me for my birthday tomorrow.  Yeah!  The radiation people were kind enough to give me a small cake (which will be breakfast tomorrow), and also let me know that my radiation appointment tomorrow is cancelled because the radiation facility is having a software upgrade to their computers.  That is a better gift than the cake.  Three day weekend here I come!

My cake from the radiation people.

Today was just a day of good news with the doctors.  First, Dr. Stille let me know after a hearing test that so far I have no hearing loss in my left ear.  This was something that was a concern originally since so much of the radiation I am receiving is going through the area around and through my left ear.  I would not enjoy having to get a hearing aid at the ripe old age of twenty-eight.    Second set of good news, I had blood work done at Dr. Wagner's today, and the results were great.  The best part of the results? My immune system is AWESOME!  Right now my immune system is low for my age, but not so low that I have to completely hide.  Apparently it is about at the level that they see in their more elderly patients before they start their chemo.  My husband and I are now actually contemplating going to a restaurant for my birthday.  I never thought I would love that thought so much.

Also, this weekend is going to be my GI Jane weekend.  I've continued to lose hair on the left side of my head, and the right side is now getting quite a bit of noticeable loss as well.  I've tried a comb-over, which does cover it up about halfway, but it is a bit too Donald Trump for my taste.  So Sunday morning when Great Clips is mostly empty, I'll be making a trip for a good ol' head shaving.  If nothing else it will be a nice way to save some money on shampoo.  The only sad thing about this is that I will no longer be able to make jokes about hair with my husband being the victim.  Darn.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Well, the radiation is finally getting to my head (pun intended).  I am now getting some pretty good visible hair loss due to the radiation treatments.  I know that it is mainly due to the radiation because most of my hair loss is happening on the left side of my head where most of the radiation is being aimed.  So far the chemo just seems to have stopped any hair growth.  That part of it is awesome, because it has now been two weeks since I've had to shave my legs.  Booyah!  To give you an idea of how quickly my left-sided hair has decided to leave, here is what came out of my brush when I brushed my hair last night after a shower:

I will say this, my hair does not do things halfway.  My husband did not appreciate the couple jokes I made about how I still have more hair than he does.  Here is a picture of the left side of my head now that hair loss is taking place:

The one good thing is that I now know exactly where the strongest radiation treatments are taking place on my left side.  I am also going to need to start channeling Demi Moore so I can do the GI Jane haircut.  Right now hats cover it up pretty well, but I have a feeling that will not be the case by the end of the week.  Until then our cat and I will compete for the top rate of shedding.  (So far I believe the cat is winning; that's what we get for adopting a long haired tom-cat).  

Radiation Pictures and a Draino Shopping Spree

I've survived my first full week of radiation/chemo!  Before this it was the holiday season, so I never had more than three days in a row, but I made it through five in a row this week.  TGIF!  I can now say that I certainly appreciate the weekend even more.

In honor of the five day week, I got one of the radiation tech people to get a couple pictures of me strapped in to the radiation machine right before the machine started its daily shooting at my head.  If you are a student of mine in Marion, enjoy these photos.  You know that you will never see me not moving just because I'm told not to again.

There is the mask getting ready to be hooked down around my head.

I'm all strapped in!  The blue and yellow dots are two of the nine spots that they are aiming radiation at.
The other seven spots are underneath or on the left side of my head.

The radiation machine is above me and getting ready to start.  

 Thanks to my mask I always have some good lizard scale marks on my face whenever I leave.  The radiation tech guys who set me up each time have also assured me that I can keep my mask when I am done with treatment.  I'll have to stick it up in my classroom on a wall, that way I am always watching . . . mwhahaha! ;)

This week I have also made some new food discoveries; some good, some obnoxious.
Good:
-  sloppy joes - if I make it a bit spicy, it tastes almost exactly the same as it used to before radiation/chemo
-  Pastor Steve's wheat bread - the middle of the bread I cannot taste, but the seasoning on the crust is wonderful!
-  Crystal Light - the different lemonades actually taste kinda like lemonade, and they cover up the metallic taste that water now has for me
-  A&W Root Beer - tastes like root beer!
Obnoxious:
-  blueberry yogurt - lets just say that my stomach decided to protest the presence of this substance (strawberry and peach are still on my stomach's good side)
-  dill pickles - they now taste like sweet pickles, which is just odd when you expect dill
-  Italian dressing - it doesn't taste like anything now other than soggy lettuce, I'm going to eat salad like a rabbit (without dressing) from this point forward

This week is also the first week that my husband has taken note of my hair loss.  It is happening a lot more on my left side since that is where more of the radiation is aimed.  His way of acknowledging it?  Telling me after a shower "We need to get some Draino.  Your hair is going to plug up the drain."  Thanks Rock, at least you're being proactive.  (We really did get Draino at Costco today.  What can I say?  Better to prevent future plumbing issues than deal with them later!)

Now I'm off to make and try another dinner item I have not eaten yet since starting chemo, enchiladas! Oh, and I hope the Seahawks destroy the Falcons this weekend.  I'm sorry if you are a Falcon's fan; I want you to lose horribly.