The Merry Month of May

This past week was a very hot and humid one for early June. Somehow we went from spring to summer in one giant leap.  May saw weather so cool that I pulled out a couple of the turtlenecks I had packed away for the summer. May also brought its share of very warm weather and several devastating storms to Missouri when warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico collided with cold air coming from Canada. On May 22nd, a third of the city of Joplin, on the other side of the state, was obliterated by the deadliest single tornado in the United States in over 60 years. The images from the devastated area were surreal, with twisted stumps of trees stripped of their bark, debris strewn everywhere, and empty slabs of concrete where houses once stood. Although we managed to dodge that bullet, I did spend a couple of evenings in May hunkered down in my basement laundry room, with the tornado sirens sounding in the neighborhood. After the horror in Joplin, I take the need for cover even more seriously than before, taking medicines, money, and other items of importance down there with me.

May also brought other things – good things. On May 25th, I drove up to Barnes West for my final round of radiation. Before radiation, I had imagined it would feel like forever having to go for treatment every day, Monday through Friday for six weeks. In fact, the days just breezed by and were over before I knew it.  I was so fortunate, once again, to be spared the fatigue that many people suffer from the process.

During the first five weeks of treatment they radiated my whole right breast, first from one side and then from the other each day. For the final week they focused the treatment on the immediate area around where my tumor had been, in case there were any lingering, isolated cancer cells that had somehow managed to escape surgery and then the full force of chemotherapy. If there were such cells still there, then they were much hardier than the other fast growing cells in my body. The outer lining of my tongue and my hair follicles  seemed to roll over and die pretty quickly.

After six weeks of treatment, radiation left me looking like one side of my chest had been sent on vacation to a nude beach in Rio, while the other side looked as though it had spent the winter bundled up in Scandinavia.  Now, two and a half weeks later, my skin has faded to a light tan.  I’ve also started to peel.  I wish I had fond memories of that beach in Rio to blame for that!


So, on Wednesday, May 25th, the third stage of my treatment plan was completed. I did celebrate that evening with champagne, albeit a little later than planned. The 25th was another of those very stormy May evenings during which we relocated to the laundry room as the neighborhood sirens sounded. We waited to drink a toast until after the threat of tornadoes had passed. Now, all I have left in my personal cancer marathon are the herceptin infusions I will continue to receive every three weeks until November, and the aromatase inhibitors that I will take daily for the next five years. More milestones to celebrate, and more excuses for champagne as each one of those stages is completed!