Thursday, February 24, 2011

Life After Radiation

Mom finished her radiation on February 7th.  For that last week and the week following she was pretty exhausted.  In fact, the week after it finished, she said she did a lot more sleeping.  She is starting to see her energy level return, but slowly.  I can see it returning also.

Now she is taking the pill that will block her hormones.  She takes that once a day, for 5 years.  There are some worrisome side effects such as muscle pain.  She has been experience an increase in muscle pain over the last few days, but the Dr. would like to see if she can push through for a month.  He says after the first month, some of the side effects, like the muscle pain will go away.  Another side effect that we are not as worried about, is bone loss.  Mom went in a few months back and had a bone density scan and they told her that she had the bones of a 25 year old.  How great is that?  The Radiologist says that because Mom's bones are so healthy to begin with that any bone loss she has will be minimal and not cause Osteoporosis.  This is still causing her some worry though.

She has a follow up with the Radiologist on the 3rd of March and with her surgeon on the 7th.  She will be due for a new mammogram in about 5 or 6 months.  She will now have one on a yearly basis.

When we meet with her surgeon on the 7th, we will talk to him about removing the Port-a-Cath that she doesn't need.  Hopefully, we can get that scheduled quickly.

Thank you all for the love and support you have shown us through all of this.  We wouldn't have handled things nearly as well without the Lord to hold us in His arms and your prayers covering us.
Standing on the promises of God, Dori