7 / 26

I've completed 7 radiation treatments and have 26 more to go.

Radiation for me is "it is what it is." That's what a friend told me to say. I shared with her I didn't want to blog because then I would have to be real regarding my treatments - or should I say - the reaction to my treatments. Radiation is so much easier than chemo. Unfortunately for me, I just didn't get the two weeks of feeling nothing. On day 4 I started feeling extremely nauseated, with a really bad headache. During the weekend it was better and by Monday I felt great so I thought it was just a fluke. Not to be. Yesterday afternoon the nausea hit really bad again, but by 7:00 pm I felt much better. I thought, "Maybe this will be an afternoon thing." I was wrong again. This morning I felt like I was having morning sickness - it was awful. I was still able to make it to treatment and still went to work, but I just wasn't myself. The doctor has given me a new medicine to try for the nausea. I will take it this evening and hope it does the trick. I know you will be hoping right along with me.

The only other effects from radiation that I have experienced is muscle tightening and swelling. My doc and tech said that was normal. I've been tired but I don't think it's from radiation. It's just from trying to get my life back to normal. Or as they say, "the new normal."

Many have wondered how work is going? Very good. I'm really glad I'm back part-time. I can't wait until I will be able to get back to the full swing of things. It makes me realize how much my life stopped after December 17th, and how everything else kept going. I'm trying to be good to myself and not get upset if I forget how to do things, etc. Today, I did a really funny thing though (well at least to me). I call it a "Traci" moment. We have a new employee that started working on Monday. His office used to be an old conference room and there was a white board with a lot of information written on it. I made sure that everyone who needed the information had copied the information before it would get erased. I went into the office and told him I was going to clean off the white board. I had gotten the bottom right half all cleaned off BEFORE he told me that he had personally started using the white board and I had just erased his information. I wanted to crawl into a hole. I felt so bad. I asked him why he didn't stop me and he said he would have if it was really important. Of course the guys in the other offices started immediately teasing me (obviously the walls are thin). I can't say I didn't deserve it. It really makes me laugh.

On to more serious stuff...my eyebrows and eyelashes. My eyebrows have been a lot slower in coming in the second time around. They are slowly getting there and I should be ready for waxing by this weekend . Who would ever have thought I would look forward to torture? My eyelashes are little stubs. My right eye is coming in much better than the left. I never thought of that...what happens if one eye gets eye lashes and the other doesn't? On Saturday, there was a gift package at our front door from my friend Steph. She purchased a product called RevitaLash to use on my eyelashes. I was so touched by this gift. It's something I would have never done for myself. I wanted to say it brought tears to my eyes, but I don't want you to think it's because I used the product. I thought I would share the story of the product:

It all began because a husband wanted to give his wife a very special gift…

RevitaLash® was developed by Dr. Michael Brinkenhoff as a special gift for his wife, Gayle, while she was recovering from breast cancer. Intensive chemotherapy treatments had damaged Gayle’s once-beautiful eyelashes, leaving them sparse, breakable and fragile. After extensive research with a team of talented cosmetic chemists, Dr. Brinkenhoff formulated an eyelash conditioner that, after just a few weeks, gave a renewed look of vitality to Gayle’s eyelashes. Thus, a new product was born; and a formula created originally for just one special woman has become a product available to women everywhere who want to have beautiful looking eyelashes. Gayle and Michael are committed to donating a portion of the proceeds from RevitaLash® sales to benefit non-profit breast cancer research and education initiatives. “Often we feel helpless when someone we love is suffering. I am very fortunate, in my own small way, to have been able to help Gayle through her recovery. Watching her be excited about her beautiful looking eyelashes has been a real joy.” — Michael Brinkenhoff, M.D. www.revitalash.com

If there is anything I've learned along this journey it's how people can touch your lives in their own unique way. I'm continue to be very grateful. I pray that I will be able to do the same in the future for others.