This past weekend Deda and Max flew down to visit, and so I could teach Max how to knit. I think he was more interested in playing than knitting, but that was ok. He did try, he did concentrate on it, and if he really wants to do this, he will remember, eventually. I did tell him it would take practice, he needs to get the muscles in his fingers to remember what they are doing.
We went to the movies on Saturday afternoon, as Deda insists on going to our favorite theater every time she comes down. She is in love with the pre-assigned wide recliner seats. We saw Ant Man and The Wasp. I love the Marvel Comic movies. They do such a great job on these movies. Totally into them.
Heather and Joseph came over after she got off work, and Joseph and Max had fun playing together. Joseph has some great moves! We were watching BBC’s Planet Earth, which has some great background music. Joseph was feeling the groove and dancing for us. His moves were on beat AND matched the music. Too bad I wasn’t able to get any video of him before he would stop.
Sunday we headed to the beach. We had to get Max a swimsuit, so we went to Target first to get him a swimsuit. We also picked up a couple of buckets and other toys as I realized our bucket with the beach toys was still in Heather’s truck from the last time we headed to the beach. I also picked up some new yoga pants and a yoga tank. Made great beachwear!
The boys had a fantastic time playing in the surf. With my new waterproof phone, I wasn’t afraid to head out into the surf to take some pictures of them. I got a few real good ones! This phone takes some great pictures. We stayed a few hours at the beach, let the boys play in the sand, collect a couple buckets of sand crabs, and when the wind started to turn, we packed it all up. The boys let the sand crabs go back in the white water, and we headed to the showers to get as much sand off of them as we could.
Deda had never heard of the baby powder trick. It removes sand. She loves this beach hack. We were able to get all the sand off the boys and get them back into dry clothes. Packed up all our gear into the trunk and came home. Once we were home, I wanted a shower. I was still in my damp beachwear. I knew I had some sand in the yoga pants, so I disrobed carefully in the bathroom so I could get the sand into the shower and wash it down the drain.
OMG – I think I brought half the beach home in my yoga pants! There was so much damn sand in there! Once I was finally clean of sand from all my orifices, I got out and dried off. There was a couple little piles of sand that landed on the bathroom floor, so I grabbed a rag to clean them up. There was one little puffy ball that kept somehow being swept or blown away from the main pile I was building. On one more pass with the rag to get everything in one place to clean it all up and that little puff ball sprouted legs and was crawling away! I brought home a sand crab…. in my pants! We laughed so hard… I had crabs.
Dinner was a loud, boisterous, fun filled event with all the kids, Deda and Max. All too soon, it was time for us to take them back to the airport. Our weekend was over. It would back to my Monday through Friday treatment regime, week 2. Even though I was already pink, and I have a little blister that has formed near the edge of my treatment area, I am ready for this. I think.
The anxiety is not as bad. It’s there, tiny and curled, swirling in a tiny ball, a little brown, a little orange. I’m good.
The boob is slightly swollen. It still feels a bit heavy, and achy. I am not sure if the achy deep in the tissue below my nipple/areola is because it is swollen and feels heavy, or from something else. The weight now pulling on tissue and nerves not used to this shift in weight, this new slight strain on them.
The nipple/areola area also remains slightly irritated. I am using the Miaderm-L now several times a day to keep the irritation as minimal as possible.
I went to the second to last lecture this morning, the group has all agreed that this is a sacred circle we have created and we don’t want it to end. We will see what we can come up with by next week when our last class meets.
After the class I headed over to Best Buy with my laptop that will no longer charge or turn on. The Geek Squad told me I had to have an appointment; they could see me at 4:20 today. Went home and made myself some lunch and applied today’s temporary tattoo. At the designated time, we headed over to the hospital.
Today was the longest I’ve ever had to wait before being called back to change. I had a new tech today – Benny, who was on vacation last week. Benny and Terri would be the ones to take care of my treatment today. Because I started on Monday last week, I had to step on the scale again. I told Benny that wasn’t fair, I had to pee and that adds at least 10 kg to my weight. Benny wasn’t sure how to take that. Terri laughed! I stepped on the scale as directed.
Terri could hardly wait to get me on the table so she could see my tattoo. Benny was curious, and loved today’s tattoo. He said he would have to think up some more for me. I think he was disappointed when I told him I already had 30 tattoos already printed up for all my sessions.
Neither Benny not Terri seemed phased with my already pink breast with my one blister. They got me all lined up with today’s coordinates for my treatment plan, then told me not to move. Through the glass plate on the linear accelerator I can see lead plates. They look like teeth that move to narrow the beam of radiation that will shoot through my breast tissue. Once the long beep starts, I see those teeth move into the shape of the planned dosage for today and see the shape of my breast take place in the open maw of that radiation-emitting beast. After the second shot of those high-energy particles through my tissue, the machine slowly starts to swing over me from my left to the right. It is moving slower than normal. Terri announces over the intercom that today is x-ray day. Just hold still a bit longer and they will be done.
I watch that glass plate as it slowly moves over me, watching the reflection of the lower half of my right breast grow and then slowly shrink as the open portion of the linear accelerator moves out of my vision field. Two more beeps later I am done. I say my farewells to Benny and Terri, and Benny confirms that I see Dr. Simko on Wednesday.
Back out in the lobby I meet back up with Robert. Because today took longer than we anticipated, we headed over to Best Buy when we were done. We were there much earlier than my appointment time, but there was not enough time for us to go home and come back. Turns out it was a wasted trip. Best Buy cannot repair my laptop as I didn’t buy it there and the deal they have with Dell is only to repair the computers purchased through them. Back home I have had to look up an authorized Dell repair facility.
Life is making memories with family