Update and Sharing

Time sure has gotten away from me. My last day of radiation is over and boy am I glad. I will say the catheter did hurt coming out. That has probably been the worst thing of this whole ordeal. Mind you it only hurt for a minute but I sure felt it. What is funny about the whole thing is I had made a candy jar and card for the dr. and the nurses that took care of my radiation every day. It was five in all. I have added the picture for you to see. I gave them the gifts at the morning session of radiation so I wouldn't have to have them in the car for a long period of time. My daughter was taking me to the second session and we were going to make some stops on the way. When I gave Dr. Mahalingam her bag she said "You aren't done yet. You know they say Don't tip the camel driver until you are down off the camel." I thought that was a funny way of putting things but she is a foreign dr. and I believe maybe from India. I told her I trusted her to finish up without hurting me. She said she hoped so. When I got back for the afternoon treatment she had opened her gift and told me how Hershey Kisses are her favorite and she hides them at home. After the radiation she was to take out the catheter. When she got done I told her I wanted the Hershey Kisses back....LOL Anyway...they all loved their candy jars and cards. It was my way of thanking them for taking good care of me and making my treatments bearable with talk and laughter.

Now to tell you a little bit about the procedure of taking out the catheter. There was a balloon on the end of the catheter which was filled with water and that is where the radiation went into and sent out into the area that needed radiation done. When the dr. extracted the fluid from the balloon there was approximately 67cc of fluid in there. If you can't fathom how much that is...it was almost two syringes full. That is big water balloon to be in your boob. Once they got all the fluid out of the balloon she basically took hold of the tubing and pulled it out. Mind you I didn't have my kids vaginally but I am comparing this to that....extracting a big object through a small hole. YIKES!!! Don't wanna do that again!

Now for my special gift of a pillow made for breast cancer patients. Abby...who is the daughter of one of my very good friends and actually extended family....is a girl scout and her troop did a project for breast cancer. They stuffed these pillows to give to patients. Let me tell you it sure helps to use them to sleep with. Prop that puppy on the pillow and it feels like heaven. In the bottom left hand corner it is stamped with "Scoutig for the cure". I love the pillow and have slept with it since she gave it to me. I had find a small pillow I used before she gave me this but this is so soft and just right. I'm sure all the other recipients of these pillows will feel the same.

I want to thank everyone for the cards I have received since I posted the picture of the ones I had already gotten. I love them all. The gifts and cards have meant so much to me. I am so bad about forgetting to send cards of thought. This sure has made me open my eyes and let me know I need to do this. It makes a person feel really good.

Have a great Saturday. My friends are still here from SC and I think we will be playing some cards tonight.