Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014
So I haven't updated . . . I haven't had time!  It is keeping me super busy just going back and forth to radiation.  It's going well so far.  It really isn't that bad.  Once I get there, it's a quick change into a gown, then the radiation, then back out.  It doesn't hurt--my scars are just a little tender, and my skin feels a little warm afterward, like a sunburn.  That will probably get worse as time goes on, though.  The only unpleasant part is having to be partially unclothed while they do the radiation.  I tell you, this whole cancer diagnosis and treatment process is hard on a person's dignity!  But then, medical things always are, even as professional and appropriate as providers try to be.

I feel good, and that's really great!  My taste has returned, though when I eat something that tastes bland to me, I always wonder if it's bland to everyone else, too.  Before chemo, I preferred things less salty rather than more.  But during chemo, I found myself pouring salt on everything, just so I COULD taste it.  It's a bit hard to describe how food tasted during chemo.  Foods like fruit tasted the most "normal."  Anything spicy or smoked tasted horrible--combine spicy with metallic and you've got the general idea.  Bread tasted weird.  Chocolate and peanut butter were both really gross.  And, like I said, I had to put a lot of salt on things just so I could taste it.  It's nice to have all that behind me!  I hope I never have to do it again.

I'm watching for my hair to come back.  Somehow I thought it would just start growing like crazy, the way it would have if I had buzzed my head before.  I'm disappointed.  It's kind of like that watched pot that never boils.  I keep checking the mirror, but it's not in a big hurry to grow.  :-(  It has started growing back (slowly), but (as my mom said) it's just like it was when I was a baby.  Fine, blonde peach fuzz all over my head.  And it's not thick, either.  I'm starting to be afraid that it will be so thin that I will have to have a wig AFTER I have hair.  And I don't want a wig.  Moral of the story . . . when you feel like complaining about your hair, don't.  My hair wasn't always perfect, and it didn't always do the things I wanted it to do, but I had some AND it was thick enough that my scalp didn't show through.  I guess whenever I start feeling sorry for myself, I will just have to remember how grateful I am to be alive!  :-)

One other thought that occurred to me . . . The busyness and time it takes for me to go to radiation every day has made me think of mothers that work full-time, especially single mothers.  I have a whole new respect for what they do!  I knew I was very blessed to not have to work outside my home, but I never realized just how much.  Even though I am going a different place each day than those that go to work, the end result is the same . . . gone all day and trying to keep up with laundry, dinner, homework, chauffeuring, etc. just like a working mom.  We are getting into a routine, so that's nice, but wow!  I really didn't fully appreciate how good I have had it!  Isn't that how life is?  Sometimes we don't recognize all of the blessings we DO have because we haven't recently felt what it would be like without the blessing.  It makes me want to pay closer attention so that I can see and be more grateful for the little blessings that I tend to overlook.

Well, I had best get going.  I need to get a little boy dressed so we can get on the road to head off to radiation again!