Treatment #6; plans for Radiation

I just had my sixth chemo yesterday, the second of the second drug which as the oncologist said would be easier for me. I was incredibly grateful that although I had a couple of bad days, most of the two weeks was tolerable without serious side effects.

It is interesting with this drug, Taxol, that the initial concern is having an allergic reaction. Before the infusion even begins, I receive several anti allergy drugs, including a Benadryl IV which makes me rather sleepy. What happened the last time was that by the third day when those drugs wore off I crashed and was extremely tired. Perhaps now that I know what to expect, it won't be as bad.

Once again, I was reminded how cancer hits all ages. Two of the women sharing the infusion room with me were young, one in her early twenties.  It  makes me realize that my situation, though not pleasant, is not half as challenging as faced by these younger women.

Tomorrow I get a special delivery of TLC as my daughter Devora arrives from Israel in the morning. This is the first time she left her three children and traveled here by herself. She is not a good traveler, reacts to jet lag for days so this is a big venture on her part. I am grateful we will have some time to be together and catch up without the troops.

My son in law Andy is an amazing Abba. He arrives with the children in about ten days, the day before Chanukah. Fortunately he will have some help on the plane from  a good friend who will travel with them. The older girls are used to the long flight and now that Shmaya is getting older, he should also be much easier. When he was smaller, Andy walked him from one end of the plane to the other sometimes for hours to get him to fall asleep. 


They normally stay with us for the first week and I get up with them at 2AM when they are wide awake with jet lag, but this time they are headed to their wonderful Palo Alto grandparents first.
I will miss that crazy middle of the night ruckus when I am making breakfast, cheerios and toasted English muffins,  and we are watching Net Flix cartoons.Hopefully, they will be able to spend some time at our house during their second week when I will be recuperated from #7 treatment.

This week Jeff and I met with our radiation oncologist at UCSF. I  was nervous about what the plan would be. Jeff and I had also talked about possibly shifting the radiation to Oakland.

Initially I could not get my cancer surgery in Oakland because none of the top doctors would accept my insurance. I immediately started pursuing the UCSF system, who would take my insurance.I know that it was the best thing I could have done. I have never second guessed any decisions nor have I felt the need to seek out second opinions.

The reason I considered moving to Alta Bates for the radiation was simply the ease of driving to Berkeley for five weeks every day rather than SF. When I found out the name of the doctor at UCSF who would see me, Dr. Barbara Fowble,  I looked up her resume. She is world renowned and patients come to her from all over. She is a specialist in only breast cancer radiation. She is also listed as one of the best doctors in the United States.UCSF doctors as I have said before are also immersed in teaching, clinical trials and publishing their findings.

We headed down to the basement offices at UCSF which we found to be stuffy and dark. Yuck. I was not looking forward to this but I knew it was the next step and had to be done. I stripped off my jacket and was gulping water from my bottle trying to ease my nerves.

We were ushered in to a small treatment room. When we met her, she was friendly, straightforward and ready to answer any questions. She explained the statistics and clinical findings have proved that radiation greatly reduces the risk of  the cancer recurring. My course of treatment is the standard five weeks. My right breast and collar bone area will be radiated. It is a very precise procedure and everything is mapped out, then sent to a physics lab which figures out the path of the beams. I have two planning sessions before I even start. The actual daily radiation takes only twenty minutes, most of the time spent in positioning me. I get tiny tattoos to mark where the radiation is to go. No, they will not be butterflies...


There will be a four to six week break between my last chemo and the radiation to give me time to recuperate. The biggest effect of radiation will be some tiredness and a sunburn effect which will go away. During radiation, I am not supposed to have any antioxidants which interfere with the free radicals...don't ask me what this means. I will receive special creams to soothe my skin,. Of course there are other possible side effects which I don't want to think about.

At first I thought the UCSF doctor could direct the doctor at Alta Bates but that is not how it works. I would have to start in from scratch with her. It took us about one minute to realize how dumb that would be. AT UCSF everything is already in place; all my films, records, test results and everything works like a well-oiled machine. I will figure that I have a five week job...to get my radiation in San Francisco and will probably drive, take BART or have some friends drive me now and then. I can also stay over at my sister's house if I want.

Two more chemo treatments...I am finally seeing the light at the end of a very dark tunnel. I pray for the rest of the time to be uneventful, enjoying my family in between the treatments and no major surprises and setbacks.