Please bear with me for this post

Please bear with me for this post, my brain is not in peak form at the moment.

The GJG Team Party was totally fab Friday night!  We had a great turnout (I’m guessing about 250 peeps over the course of the eve with 50 to 75 kids running around having an absolute ball) great music, food and beer and big fun.  We also raised $2,850!  Yay!  Thank you so much to everyone who came out and supported us.  I am still riding the high, feeling the love.  Extra bonus for the weekend, my best friend from UGA visited AND, icing on the cake, the Dawgs beat the Tigers!!

In order to have an extra recovery day from chemo before RFTC this weekend, I received treatment Monday instead of my usual Tues.  Not a huge fan of starting the week that way… Monday afternoon I rushed directly from chemo to a marathon radiation set up and treatment appointment.  It rocked me with pain, which I was not at all expecting.  Having done 5 previous courses of radiation I consider myself pretty well versed in what to expect, but it was all surprises. Laying on my back for almost two hours on the treatment table and effectively squishing the tumor over my right shoulder blade between bone and metal, caused horrible pain despite pain meds.  This tumor has been hurting quite a bit anyway. Then shocking, lightening flashes of pain, but thank God only in 2 tumors, kicked in that night.  The Hydrocodone did not touch it.  After quite a few desperate hours I put on the narcotic patch (which I totally did not think I was going to need and have never used before) at 3am.  Its effects don’t  kick in for 12 to 24 hours after application which is also when the nausea from it can kick in as well (not what I wanted following chemo), but at that point it was a gamble I was willing to take.

Following radiation yesterday it all started up again, despite one patch and hydrocodone too.  After a call to Gary’s, and a meeting with both of my rad oncs, I am now on 2 narcotics patches, more nerve medicine and taking Hydrocodone as needed.  As I continue with treatments, and for who knows how long afterwards, cell death (tumors pressing on nerves) and swelling (stretching nerves) will continue and at some point peak (previously this has occurred about 3 weeks after my last radiation).  Hope it does not continue that long!!!  The good news is that I was able to sleep last night, tough I woke up in a total stupor.  I am hoping all the meds will dull or eliminate the lightening after today’s treatment at 4.  And that I’ll sleep tonight as well.

This has been a very long post, hopefully not too tedious for everyone, and I am pooped.  I, or one of our Board Members, will post some race deets tomorrow.  The Race is my carrot after what is turning out to be a very long week.

J