About Me
- Ysolei
- New York City, NY, United States
- (ee-so-lay) n. Daring, fearless, creative, loving, loved, blunt, survivor, empowered, shining light, mother, daughter, friend, phoenix, veteran
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
First Day of Radiation Therapy
9:51 AM | 
Posted by
Ysolei
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
First Day of Radiation Therapy (5.18 mi/6913 steps) 181 cal.
Didn't sleep well last night. Not afraid, just a lot on my mind. I've been here before—having had radiation treatments for the 1997 histiocytoma on my left thigh. I remember being very tired a few weeks into my treatments ( I was working then and the single mom of a seven year old). The reason for the fatigue with radiation therapy is the damage to both good and bad cells. The body works overtime to rid itself of the free radicals produced and dead cells.
The treatment was only four minutes, took about 15 minutes to line me up correctly. In 1997, radiologists were still using lead blocks to protect non-radiated areas. Now they use a laser field which delivers a more precise beam to the intended area. That's great news for me because I'm having my right axilla (armpit), chest wall and subclavicular (collarbone) lymph done. The field is really close to my neck and well, brain, face, etc. I didn't feel a thing, of course and was in and out very quickly.
I walked from Kingbridge Road to Mt. Eden, then took the 4 train the rest of the way home. Got my eyebrows threaded and headed home to shower and blog.
I should mention how I got here. I ignored a lump in my right breast in late summer of 2008. I had a stressful job as an occupational health RN, 232 pounds (overfat), eating fast food each day and NO exercise or sunshine. I had all the risks of a cancer re-occurrence. But I thought the lump was a benign fibroadenoma (non-cancerous lump) like the one I had in my left breast in 2002. Plus, I'm Black (well half) with no family history of breast cancer....so my last thought was that I could have breast cancer. I was wrong. By the time I finally had a mammogram (at my primary MD's insistence) the micro calcifications were a telling sign. I had a biopsy and was diagnosed with stage IIIC Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma (IDC). Estrogen receptor postive (thank God, which usually means a less aggressive cancer). On September 4, 2009 I had a modified right mastectomy and axillary node dissection. A sentinel node biopsy was done at the same time revealed a spread to the lymph. In all, 65 lymph nodes were removed from my right axilla, 17 positive for metastatic spread.
Scary stuff, true, but I'm tough and optimistic. I survived cancer once before and I believe with God's grace, I will again. My goal is to tell as many women as possible—get your breasts checked. Don't ignore lumps, hoping they will go away or assuming they are harmless.
First Day of Radiation Therapy (5.18 mi/6913 steps) 181 cal.
Didn't sleep well last night. Not afraid, just a lot on my mind. I've been here before—having had radiation treatments for the 1997 histiocytoma on my left thigh. I remember being very tired a few weeks into my treatments ( I was working then and the single mom of a seven year old). The reason for the fatigue with radiation therapy is the damage to both good and bad cells. The body works overtime to rid itself of the free radicals produced and dead cells.
The treatment was only four minutes, took about 15 minutes to line me up correctly. In 1997, radiologists were still using lead blocks to protect non-radiated areas. Now they use a laser field which delivers a more precise beam to the intended area. That's great news for me because I'm having my right axilla (armpit), chest wall and subclavicular (collarbone) lymph done. The field is really close to my neck and well, brain, face, etc. I didn't feel a thing, of course and was in and out very quickly.
I walked from Kingbridge Road to Mt. Eden, then took the 4 train the rest of the way home. Got my eyebrows threaded and headed home to shower and blog.
I should mention how I got here. I ignored a lump in my right breast in late summer of 2008. I had a stressful job as an occupational health RN, 232 pounds (overfat), eating fast food each day and NO exercise or sunshine. I had all the risks of a cancer re-occurrence. But I thought the lump was a benign fibroadenoma (non-cancerous lump) like the one I had in my left breast in 2002. Plus, I'm Black (well half) with no family history of breast cancer....so my last thought was that I could have breast cancer. I was wrong. By the time I finally had a mammogram (at my primary MD's insistence) the micro calcifications were a telling sign. I had a biopsy and was diagnosed with stage IIIC Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma (IDC). Estrogen receptor postive (thank God, which usually means a less aggressive cancer). On September 4, 2009 I had a modified right mastectomy and axillary node dissection. A sentinel node biopsy was done at the same time revealed a spread to the lymph. In all, 65 lymph nodes were removed from my right axilla, 17 positive for metastatic spread.
Scary stuff, true, but I'm tough and optimistic. I survived cancer once before and I believe with God's grace, I will again. My goal is to tell as many women as possible—get your breasts checked. Don't ignore lumps, hoping they will go away or assuming they are harmless.
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