Radiation wrap up

Before I get too far out from the end of my radiation experience, I want to acknowledge the absolutely amazing people who cared for me and guided me through this process.

I have the highest regard for my radiation oncologist, Dr. Lu.  She never made us feel rushed during our weekly appointments, taking her time to thoroughly answer every question we had and explain all aspects of the treatment in thoughtful and understandable ways.  She is wonderful!

The man and women who administered the radiation were thoroughly professional and kind and fun!  What a perfect combo for people you will be seeing on a daily basis for seven weeks!  I looked forward to talking with them each day!  Luis had already left for vacation and I didn't get a pic with Rachel, but here I am with Mindy and Jamie.  Lovely ladies who made this process so much more pleasant!

This is me with the big honking machine that sends the radiation into my body.  There's a bench behind me, on which I would lie verrrrry still. Learned the hard way once that you do NOT move once you are in position!  Anyway, the machine moves around you and the bench slides this way and that under the machine.  It's really quite amazing and I'm not explaining it very well.  Suffice it to say, this is some very high tech medical equipment!

Mom and Dad came down to Houston with me several of the seven weeks, to help me get around and keep me company, which was so appreciated. Sometimes you just want your mom and dad, even when you are 39! They were definitely there for the bell ringing, along with my aunt Melissa.  What a blessing to have such supportive and loving family!  I can't imagine doing this alone.  And a big thank you to my in laws for watching the kids in Austin the final week of treatment so my parents could be with me.  Both sets of grandparents and several of my aunts and my cousin were all a huge help in watching the kids, along with our super-nanny (more on her in a minute!)...THANK YOU everyone!

Every week I would visit with Dr. Lu and her fantastic nurses, Natalie and Patrick. Again, considerate and friendly people.  I think that's an overall theme at this office--everyone is truly so nice!

Another pic of me and Natalie, this time with Marisa, one of the fantastic women who greeted me every day at the front desk.  Marisa and Veronica always set the tone with their friendly hellos, and they made me feel so especially great when I ditched the wig/scarf and braved the short hair last week.  What lovely people!  

As you can tell, my experience with the people in charge of my radiation was outstanding. Everyone was kind, thorough, intelligent, thoughtful.  I couldn't have asked for a better group with which to work!  And I am certain there are zero remaining cancer cells in my left chest region.  There's no way they survived!

The hardest part physically has been the recovery from the boost, or the final week of radiation directed at my incision sites.  I sailed through the other six weeks of overall radiation fairly easily, with only a bit of itchy red skin.  However, my boost sites are pretty angry looking.  Itchy, extremely red, peeling, painful.  They told me it might get worse this week before it gets better.  The radiation can actually continue to work for up to two weeks after the final treatment!  But hopefully I will start to see some healing soon....

The hardest part overall was leaving the kids each week.  I definitely missed David as well, but we have some experience being apart for a few weeks at a time due to his work.  This was the longest I was away for the kids!

My family and David's family helped us tremendously, as I mentioned.  We also were so blessed to find the amazing Kate as our summer nanny!  She took excellent care of them, helped them get to and from their summer activities and numerous play dates, planned super fun outings, and even came down to Houston with us for a few days.  Helping the kids keep their normal schedules and remain in their home routine made an enormous difference in how they managed what was a somewhat scary and certainly different summer.  We adore her and think the world of her!  And the kids absolutely love her, as you can see.....

Best of luck getting your MBA, Kate!

Since I've been back, a lot has happened!  David came home too--yippee!  We took Reese to overnight summer camp for the first time.  While it was hard to be apart so much this summer, it has certainly prepared her to stay away from home.  She was a little nervous but mainly so very excited.  It was so fun to take her, set her up and see her off into this amazing adventure!

I've been obsessively checking the camp website for pictures and she seems to be pretty happy in all of them so far, which of course makes my heart soar!  We will get the full story next week when she comes home, but I expect it will be an excellent report.

There are three other precious Austin girls in her cabin, and we got the girls together several times before camp started.  The girls all get along great and it helped Reese tremendously to already have friends going into camp.  And the moms are all so fun, it's been an awesome bonus to have three fun new friends!  We went to a post-drop-off dinner on Monday and had a blast!

That's really all for now.  I'm settling into the routine of daily tasks at home again, and it did strike me as odd to be running errands in Austin on a weekday yesterday.  My experience in Houston was wonderful but I'm very happy to be home!