Take a Deep Breath and Hold It.....

"Take a deep breath and hold it..." Ok, so those are the words I hear about 15 times in a 30 minute period while I'm laying on the radiation table. Yes, I've started my 30 days of radiation treatment..today is day 5 and I'm happy to say I have almost one week of 6 behind me!

I go downtown to Mercy General Hospital every weekday for a 30 minute apt. Take the hour round-trip drive and the time it takes to park and get to my apt and I'm gone about 2 hours. Because my cancer was on my left side its caused some complications with radiation. In an effort to minimize the damage to my heart the radiation oncologist is trying to block my heart out as best she can. One of these methods is having me hold my breath each and every time they radiate. This way my heart moves down into my chest cavity just slightly and out of the direct ray of the radiation.

So far the only side effect I've had is that I've felt really tired the past 2 days. They said after about a week to a week and a half of treatment I'd start to have side effects. Redness, sunburn, tenderness in the radiation area, chest pains, pigmentation changes, fatigue and body aches. I've had chest pains twice now and I'm wondering if its related to this? Probably.

Anyhow..tune in later to find out how I'm surviving this daily regimen.
Smiles,
Heidi