Bad, Bad Patient.

I thought for a moment that they were going to refuse to radiate me. I thought I was going to have to add one more day at the end (July 13th hung in the balance!). See, once I was in my blue hospital gown, or, more to the point, once I was on the radiation table with the gown off and my top half exposed, it became very obvious that I had screwed up. I'd violated one of the "must not" rules. The one were I must not be in direct sunlight. Yeah, ouch. Sunburn. And it was such an amateur mistake--of course I can get sunburned on an overcast day. Of course I can. I know this. I just was way too relaxed enjoying the nice day in Michelle's beautiful backyard garden on Sunday wearing a t-shirt that was more scoop necked than it should have been and not at all thinking about being radiation girl.

The radiation therapists were not amused with me. They pointed out that I had gotten a little sunburn in the treated area. And just to make their point, once I was lined up in the green laser lines, they then drew on me again. Not-so-little dashes so I could see how big the radiated area is. Suffice it to say v-neck, scoop neck, tank and of course strapless tops are completely out for the next couple months. I learned the hard way. But they did proceed with the treatment. I have a feeling though that if it had been later in the treatments where my skin was damaged more, they may have made me wait. I have the damnedest time remembering I'm a patient.

Before I left for radiation this morning I did catch a bit of the Today show (big Matt Lauer fan, I must admit). They had a segment on, basically, what to say to a friend or family member who's just been diagnosed with cancer. Turns out I'm not very original. The cancer patients they interviewed all said pretty much what I'd said in an earlier post. So much for my brilliant insights. But here's a link to the segment (or just to Matt Lauer, if that works for you). Today show: Reaching Out to Someone with Cancer. They are doing a series on cancer topics this week. Tuesday morning will be a look at the financial cost of being diagnosed with the disease. Oh yeah, that'll be a good one. I'm just stacking up all the insurance notices at this point because I somehow think someday I'm going to add up the cost of treatment, both what insurance covered and what I covered. I'm well past my deductible and co-pay maximum. I'm sort of "lucky" that my diagnosis came when it did--all of my treatment will be in the same year, which means only one deductible and one co-pay maximum. Phew.

Anyway, now we are at 9 radiations down, 24 to go. Tomorrow I hit double digits!