Happy Daffodil Day! Today is the American Cancer Society's annual Daffodil Day, a fundraiser for the ACS and a day brightener for all of us doing cancer battle. Last year I finished my chemo treatment right around Daffodil Day, so I guess it's appropriate that this is my last week for radiation as well! Lots of generous people anonymously fund bouquets of the pretty yellow teacups to give out to people going through treatment, and despite the organizers' frustrations that the flowers weren't open yet this year, that's how I prefer them. It's great fun to be able to set them in my sunny window and wait for them to open like magic!
Last week was uneventful on the treatment end, and I was only able to get to the middle school I'm volunteering at once because of my treatment schedule. So, no fun fractions to perk up the middle of last week, but my sister came to visit at the end of the week which really brightened up week 4. We traveled to the Twin Cities to shop, catch a movie, and make me try on 8,000 bridesmaid dresses. All's well that ends well, though, we did get a dress that she really likes (so do I!), and it was fun being the guinea pig.
I spent this weekend huddling on my couch with my mother in law and parents taking care of me (actually taking care of my kids, I was pretty self-sufficient, though whiney and vegged out on "Lost" reruns). No, not radiation side effects, I enjoyed what they're calling the "Rochester Bug." 102 fever, chills, cough, great fun, let me tell you! Eric had a meeting in Des Moines all weekend, so fortunately my parents had planned on coming in case I was dealing with radiation tiredness (so far so good there!). By Sunday evening I had perked up enough that I could again consider driving to Rochester on Monday, but I canceled a morning meeting after my temp started going up again after dinner. By 10am on Monday, all signs indicated a recovery, so I packed up and headed back to Minnesota for my last week.
I had a double up of treatments yesterday so that barring complications (like tornadoes, hurricanes or the like) I'll be finished on Friday and ringing the bell in the waiting room signifying I'm done with treatment. My skin is finally reacting the way we expected it would, but it's not painful or peeling at this point. Basically looks like a little heat rash, and they expect it to worsen for a few weeks after I finish treatment. Eric came to visit last night and will head home today, a short visit, but we were both pretty determined he'd get here once during my stay.
SNOW IS MELTING!
Carpe diem! - Trela
