Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Radiation

Today I had my first radiation treatment. I'm having these done to my entire pelvis to zap the spots in my hip bones. Apparently, there are 3 spots leftover and 2 new ones. I'll go every day for 10 days. Of course there is the possibility of damage and side effects, bladder and bowel issues, so we'll see how it goes. I've had good results from radiation in the past, so I'm expecting good things!

My endoscopy showed no cancer in my gastro system, which is wonderful! But I still have inflammation and gastritis, baby ulcers, he called it. He explained to me that the chemo could be causing all the upset. Since chemo works on rapidly growing cells in the body (cancer, hair, nails, etc.), it affects the stomach because - I didn't know this - the stomach lining is constantly renewing itself. So it's made up of rapidly growing cells. I'll probably have tummy problems until I get off chemo. And who knows when that will be!!! Ugh!!!!

I had blood drawn today, incuding a CA125. Maybe tomorrow I'll find out the results. In the meantime, I'm just keeping on keeping on. Life is hectic around here, so there's always plenty to keep my mind of myself. And that's a good thing!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Melinda,

To overcome tummy problems I used to drink plain yogurt (with live cultures) mixed with water and little lime/lemon juice and a pinch of salt. It used to calm my stomach a lot during my chemo sessions.

Live bacterial cultures in yogurt are proven to help replenish the intestines with helpful bacteria.

Take care,
Anna