So I’ve already written a million posts on radiation, but since it’s over, I thought I would talk about how radiation really was for me. (No bs..real talk!) radiation, like chemo..is different for everyone. For me, I handled radiation in a totally different way. Chemo, I was out and about, enjoying life, still sick, but nonetheless, I had motivation to get out. Probably from the lethal amount of Prednisone that I’m on, ha! Radiation was a different monster, but mainly due to the areas that I had radiated. Most people think that radiation is just your specific cancer cells being zapped, and it’s painless and you go in, out, and call it a day. Since my Cancer was *i’m going to say WAS because I feel like I might be in remission right now* refractory, I had more areas to radiate. I got my entire neck, chest, and spleen radiated. The nausea and fatigue were major for me, but mainly because I was being radiated SO close to my stomach. I’m not kidding you when I tell you that some days, I would lay in bed all day crying, counting down the days until radiation was over. After radiation was finished (it’s been 6 days), I can barely swallow anything–it even hurts to swallow water, and my Lymphocytes (part of my WBC’s) became insanely low. Radiation was tough for me, and draining. Way more so than chemo. But yet again, by the grace of God, I met an amazing nurse named Vanessa in the process! I swear every time I want to snap during treatment, I end up meeting amazing nurses or doctors that help me along the way. Thank you God!
So the burns from radiation are pretty bad on my chest now, and underneath my arm, where I have a stubborn lymph node that wouldn’t seem to shrink. The area feels a bit raw. I’m pretending it’s a sun burn as shown below.
But here was the tricky part for me, my platelets became too low to continue radiation, half way through. Vanessa helped me with a trick to get my platelets up, and I swear it works! (Even though my doctor thinks otherwise hahaha!) so, here is my secret. Papaya juice! Try to get fresh Papaya juice where ever you can. I have a local juicery near my apartment that sells it. It’s slimey and doesn’t taste the best, but I swear this helped me! This, along with one wheat grass shot a day, and I was able to maintain a platelet count high enough to continue radiation. Don’t ask me how, don’t ask me why, it just worked for me.
So, I’m now almost finished with my journey (g*d willing, depending on my future scan), and I start chemo again on Tuesday. Since I’ve been off of chemo since April, my 5th cycle will be like going through chemo for the first time again. The hair loss, the eyelash loss, the eyebrow loss, the shock to my system, etc. It’s funny, because in the process, we really don’t understand the true beating that our bodies take during chemo and radiation, I’ll definitely be reminded of that on Tuesday. Hope everyone has a safe July 4th weekend!
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