On July 28, I left hot St. George with my Mom and Grandma. When we got to Salt Lake, we went to see my radiation oncologist. Dr. Hitchcock informed us that while we were there now, she would not begin my radiation until the 9th of August. Over the next week, I had 2 MRI's and a CT scan.
For anyone who has never had an MRI, I would like to explain the experience. When you enter the room for the scan, you see a very narrow table and a machine with a small round hole in the middle. Now, it has not escaped me that I am not the smallest person, and as I looked at the small opening I wondered if I would get stuck. I laid on the table and the technician commenced to strap me to the table with plastic restraints and then he taped my feet together in a not-so-comfortable position. I realized then that perhaps I wasn't into being tied up. Then you are ready for the test to begin. Fortunately, Huntsman not only has ear plugs available, it also has music. The tech placed the headphones on and I felt set. The music was loud, but the machine is MUCH louder. Then the table begins to go through the small hole. Once you are in place, and thoroughly wedged in their, the machine starts up. Now at this moment I thought to myself, what if I was permanently stuck and could not get out? I envisioned a chainsaw and a tech crying over his now demolished machine. This machine is EXTREMELY LOUD and I was worried that I might be deaf when this is done. I imagine it is what it is like to have your head in a large bell as it rings. This machine whines, knocks, and buzzes. Now these scans don't take like 5 minutes, they take 90 minutes. As you are in this machine, mind you it is late July and you are already hot as heck from the cancer, it gets even hotter due to the magnets whirling around you. (This is one of the reasons they ask you about metal in your body and you have to remove anything metallic before the scan begins.) Time seemed to stand still as the machine blared on. Finally the tech tells you in the earphones that the you are to the last part of the scan. That must be the longest 8 minutes. When I got out of this machine, I was drenched with sweat, partially deaf from the loud machine, in immense pain from laying on that hard table and being taped in a awkward position, and starving. My MRI experience was not the funnest (And this was actually my 3rd MRI in 5 weeks).
I was blessed to find a medical apartment in the Avenues, run by a Bishop of the LDS church. I love Skip, he treated me so well. Thank you Skip. I was also blessed to have a good friend who could stay with me while I was ill. Thank you Lesa. So, we moved in and my sweet mother took me to the grocery store and filled my cupboards. Thank you Mom and Grandma. I know they did this at a sacrifice of keeping food in their own cupboards. So we were now set up with nothing to do but wait to start radiation.
Finally, we got this party started and began radiation. I had thought that this would be such an easy thing to do. The first day I went into radiation, I thought it would be a repeat of what had happened in St. George. Perhaps they would want me to pose in some crazy pretzel stance that I could barely hold 45 seconds and yet they would want 45 minutes of that position. I was greeted by 2 very gorgeous girls who worked as a team to create a cradle for my leg, re-tattooed my leg to line me up, and then got REALLY up close and personal to create a barrier for my, well in the words of Chelsea Handler, my Picachu. And then they did the CT scan and told me that I was set for Radiation. I was amazed. It was nothing like what I had been through during my 3 failed dry runs in St. George. The next day I began to meet some of the people I love. Two of them was Dr. Hitchcock's MA, Karen and her nurse, Julie. Every day they asked me how I was, how I felt, and they had a huge smile for me. And if there was a concern, they addressed it while I was there. Thank you Karen and Julie. As time wore on, I began to realize how very difficult radiation is. It was difficult for me to get dressed, ride to Huntsman, and come home and nap. After 2 weeks of radiation, I was miserable and needed increased pain medication because my leg was beginning to fry like bacon. And I still had an open wound from my biopsy that required to be dressed at least twice a day, if not 3 to 4 times a day. Another miserable part of my days because the last thing I wanted was to have tape ripped off my burnt leg. Eventually, tape became non-existent, but then the trick was to either use netting, which could come loose and not hold in place, or ace bandages that slid down to my knee. Lesa worked very hard to keep my leg dressed on a regular basis.
The last week of August my mom and dad traveled together to come see me. It was great to see both of them. While they were in Salt Lake, I felt like an only child and certainly knew the love of my parents because they overcame their differences and were there for me. We had so much fun together. Mom and Dad wanted to try the nice restaurant at Huntsman, so we went to radiation early so we could eat lunch. It was a blast to have Dad pull out his binoculars to see the valley. And Mom made me laugh as she was so excited to try the different offerings of the Point Restaurant. The next day, we went to see Aunt Zina and April in Layton. We had a good visit but we left there to go get the fresh fruits and vegetables in Brigham City. Then we got real crazy and went to Logan because Mom wanted to go to the dairy. The problem was that we had no idea where the dairy was. So we stopped at the Walgreen's to ask and it turned out we were headed in the right direction. We got cheese and ice cream. I had the most amazing Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ice Cream Cone. It was very yummy. Mom really wanted to go to Idaho, but I was getting tired, so we went and saw the Logan Temple and the Logan Tabernacle before we went back to Salt Lake. As tired as I was, we had so much fun! I really did feel like an only child with 2 doting parents. The next day, we went to Sacrament Meeting together. I know my Dad had not been to church in at least a year so I was pleased when he went to sacrament meeting with us. This trip really cheered my spirits to keep me going and finish my radiation, regardless of how much I hurt.
Onward and upward and my leg was hurting more and more. And I knew my leg was looking and cooking like bacon. I hurt so much every day. There were days that I really thought to myself that I wanted to die because of the pain. And I wanted to quit at times because of the pain and my impatience to be done and on to the next step, surgery. Finally, the last day of radiation came on September 14th. I made it and there were a lot of days I was not certain I would not. So I went in on my last day of radiation and everybody made a huge deal of it. It was at this point I received my 2nd fleece blanket for finishing radiation. Now I have said this before, but I will say it again, there should be some spa package or cash prize for being able to finish the difficult rigors of radiation. At the end I was left with a severe burn and a large tumor that was supposedly liquid inside.
The radiation experience itself was a trip. Apparently this is the newest in radiation treatment. I would go in and they would line me up according to my tattoos. There were days this went smoothly, other days that I was unsure we would ever get into position. They then swung the table over to the CT scanner, where they scanned my leg. From this scan they would find the exact middle of the mass in the tumor. This would take the physicist a few minutes before they were ready to move the table to it's new position to get the middle. Then, finally I was ready for radiation. The radiation itself took less than 5 minutes, but the entire process took 30 minutes. The one huge blessing in all this was that I just had to lay there on my back and do nothing. The way they were trying to set me up in St. George would have required much more muscle training and uncomfortable positions.
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