Monday's RAD Report

We didn't know until today that on Mondays the doc sees Lois, so this morning we were at the cancer center just long enough to let the outside temperature creep from the cool upper eighties, to the warm and toasty upper nineties. I had to mow the lawn and was planning on being home by about 8:45 to get'er done. Didn't happen. Got home at 10 am when the thermometer was reading "97" degrees. About half way through the job, I stopped and soaked my hat in water and poured a gallon or so over my head and finished just as this eastern Washington oven hit 100 degrees. Lois saw all the water dripping off the bill of my hat and thought it was perspiration. I shouldn't complain though, it's s'posed to hit about 105 by the end of the week. The lawn don't get mowed in that kind of heat.

The doctor said Lois is doing fine. She answered the few questions I had about radiation and just exactly what it is, and showed us the pictures in Lois' file which show where the beams are directed and how deep they travel. She told Lois to get some large t-shirts to wear, and stop wearing her bra. It doesn't bother her now, but the doc said the pressure points will get more sensitive quicker if she continues wearing them. She puts on large doses of a special Aloe formulation the night before radiation, and afterwards each day. The doc said eventually she will be using a white paste instead; "sorta like toothpaste," she said. Thank goodness for good air conditioning in this weather. I can't imagine how miserable this condition could become in this heat. I'm probably not even going to ask her if she would be interested in mowing the lawn.

Two Famous People and Two RAD Days

The picture is to showcase the hats we purchased while on our mini-vacation in Seaside, Oregon, last month. Next to Lois and I, the prettiest thing in the picture is obviously that hanging basket of flowers over our heads (click on the pic for a larger view). Beautiful isn't it; reminds me of all those huge flower baskets Daryl Sharpe and the ag kids at Sequim High School hang all over town in the summer. Can't grow stuff like that in our desert here in Eastern Washington.

We just finished up the first two days of radation. She goes in each morning at 8:20 and the whole process took about 25 minutes this morning. I sit in the waiting room and read. Yesterday she woke me up when she came back into the lobby. I was tired; but she managed to drag me all over town; Brooke's, Lowe's, Valu Village, and Costco, before we got home and I was able to take a real nap.

We'll keep you posted, and please feel free to leave comments, flowers, coins, or paper money if you prefer.

Yes, Virginia, There Will be Radiation

The meeting with our radiation oncologist yesterday afternoon, for follow up to the PET/CT scan, went as expected: "there is no evidence of any recurrence of the cancer." Lois goes in this morning for measurements for a body mold which will hold her body in the exact same position for each session of radiation. There will be 28 sessions, Mondays through Fridays, 10 minutes each, and they are scheduled to begin next Thursday.

The odd thing is that Lois says she never thought she would be "excited about getting radiation." I think I know what she means. If you're confused here's a synopsis: A surgeon in Spokane, who was scheduled to removed her other breast, questioned why she hadn't had radiation, so we returned to our two oncologists in Kennewick for review consultations. The removal of four or more cancerous nodes mean required radiation, three or less, not so. She had three. The surgeon in Spokane said she would have strongly recommended radiation anyway, and our radiation oncologist here in Kennewick had said the same thing; but our chemotherapy onocologist had "swayed" us away (the evidence for survivability with women with three or less, who had radiation, was statistically no different than those who didn't). After the review consultation a few days ago with the rad oncologist, we walked out bummed thinking we had made a bad decision a year ago when the original decision was made, especially since the radiation oncologist said this time it was too late to do radiation, but it was also probably "ok" since she was in the recommended, rather than the mandatory category (even though only one node away from mandatory). whew!

The next day we got a call from the rad oncologist saying she had consulted with a colleague at UCLA and she was now recommending Lois get a PET/CT and "if it shows no cancer we can still do radiation;" so here we are.

I questioned her about why she said "if it shows no cancer," then the she would do radiation, I thought radiation was to reduce tumors. "That is correct," she said, "the reason we would do it now (with Lois) is to kill any microscopic cells that remain in the region of the breast that was affected; and they are there." I didn't like that last comment, but sometimes reality smacks you up side the head. "And the radiation will kill them before they start growing again, and spreading." Zap away doc.

Before meeting with her I was thinking there's no good way out of this. She's either going to tell us that the cancer has spread and we have to start all over with the chemo, or she's going to tell us Lois will have radiation. Not much of a good news/bad news scenario; but taking everything into account, we both agree, it was good news and we're both excited about radiation.

Here's a picture of Brooke and Maia (is that a binkie?) taken at Twin Lakes a few weeks ago on a nice cool day with natural air conditioning. It was 107 degrees here in Kennewick yesterday; today we're having a cool spell, only going to be in the upper nineties.