I started a joke

Things did not really pan out after my last post. First, Dr. Lee (the radiation oncologist) still will not see me until after I’ve completed chemo to discuss my radiation plan. Dr. Joyce (medical oncologist) was sure that he would, so it feels a little like he wants to have all of the “power” regarding my treatment, and that is not a dynamic that I love. But, I will have to have radiation every day (for however many weeks and whichever body parts he decides upon) so it’s impractical to go elsewhere. I still have absolutely no idea how much longer I will be in active treatment, and I won’t know for at least 9 more weeks.

I also am unable to have the MRI. My tissue expanders are not  MRI safe, and I will have to keep them for a year after completing radiation, so…. that’s out.

Dr. Joyce said that an X-ray would not be beneficial, and a PET scan can’t be done while actively undergoing chemo treatments because it can create false positives, which leaves a CT scan. CT is not ideal for bones, plus, you might remember the exciting reaction I had the last time I had CT contrast, so steroids (on top of the ones I have to take for the chemo) would be required. Additionally, the only place that can get me in soon is :

SIRA.

Ugh.

FU SIRA.

Ultimately, I decided that a sub-par (for these purposes) scan at a sub-par facility is not something I want to endure at this time. I’m going to just wait and do a PET scan after I finish chemo. The spine pain comes and goes, which is not really how tumors work, so it’s probably just a regular old back problem, anyway. IU Health had already scheduled the CT with SIRA. When I called to cancel, I made sure to be polite because I knew it wasn’t the fault of the person on the phone. But wouldn’t you know it, they were rude to ME!

FU, SIRA!!!!!!!!!!

In other “the joke’s on me” news, I lost a lot of hair about 2 1/2 weeks ago, but I still had a lot of hair, too. Everyone said the rest would fall out pretty quickly. This type of chemo is basically guaranteed to make your hair fall out. My nurse navigator said it could take up to a couple of weeks. I didn’t want to just wait, so we shaved it short, then I shaved it the rest of the way down (without the guard on the clippers) to get it over with. Except… the rest of it didn’t fall out?? In fact, I have “fuzz” on almost my entire head- it’s already growing back! So, I guess I went bald for nothing, which is super awesome… 🤦‍♀️

Brant says at least it will grow back even, but…yeah.