Nine more zaps to go

[annathepiper]

Had to stay home today; I slept very poorly, and as a consequence, felt like crap when the alarm went off. I've also felt periodically shaky and shivery and weak throughout the day, which suggests that I may actually be fighting something off. Which wouldn't surprise me. My system's working overtime right now anyway to compensate for getting zapped--I probably don't have many resources left to handle fighting off a cold.

So I emailed in and have pretty much been lying down all day aside from going out to get zapped and running a couple other errands. And Dr. Taylor prescribed me Silvadene, as well as a round of Percocet to help me sleep better at night until this is over. Along with that, the nurse gave me a soft adhesive pad to put over the area to help keep it from rubbing against my clothes and stuff. I have tried some of the cream, taken a painkiller, and put the pad on. All of these things seem to be helping, and I suspect a nap of sheer relief is in my immediate future.

Thursday I start with the boost zaps, which will be focusing a greater dosage of radiation right to the spot where the incision was done. Which means I only have a couple more days of the bit under my underarm having to deal with getting zapped. That'll be good. We'll just have to see how my energy holds out.

Comments

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

Silvadene is a wonderful thing. I use it over neosporin.

[annathepiper]

It seems to be pretty effective, yeah. I think this'll do me well until I'm done with this whole process.

[damara.livejournal.com]

Hang in there!

We're all rooting for you.

[annathepiper]

Thank you very much. :)

I have kitten therapy to indulge in, too! Both the cats have been snoozing on me while I've been resting on the couch.

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Yahh, really liked Silvadene, and it's good for around chemo sites, too (had a new port finally put in because the old one was all screwed up).

Fentanyl transdermal beats Percocet, but I don't know if you can get it down there.

Also, radiolytic fatigue, really not much of a cure for it other than lots of sleep and water; the niacin is more about metabolic needs than anything else. I'm finding that the perfusion chemo is beating the crap out of me now - I only got about two hours of useful work done today and was mostly droning away in space-land the rest of the time. Fortunately I bill by the day for my services. ^_^

Are you getting immediate transient radiation effects on your nervous system? I was getting all "staticky" for a few minutes after each zap, pretty much incapable of cognition until I had about fifteen minutes of sit and recover time -- felt like maybe the nerves were getting charged up somehow, but I could not seem to get my radiologist to take it seriously.

Ah well, the monsters can be beaten. Take care of yourself, hey?

[annathepiper]

I've never heard of fentanyl transdermal, so I have no idea if we can get it down here. :)

The niacin so far seems to be helpful. I asked the two nurses about it; neither of them had ever heard of niacin as an aid for radiation fatigue, but they didn't know of any reason why I shouldn't try it either. Over this past week, aside from today, I've been on average way more alert than the week before. So whatever the niacin is doing to my metabolism seems to be a good thing. I'm going to try it for a bit longer and see what happens.

I don't get the nerve effects you describe. I've gotten only vague passing staticky feelings in my arm and that's only when I have it up over my head, so I suspect that just must be a reaction to the weird position I have to be in while they're zapping me. Mentally it doesn't do anything to me, aside from the general fatigue wiping me out.

Thanks and likewise. :) Two more weeks. I can do this!

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that the niacin has at least partially working for you; the Cancer Society are very keen on it up here, as are the nurses in the clinic at St Joe's (in Comox, where I go for my rat-paysinin'); and as for the transient neurological effects, it may well be that it depends much on the modality (sensu particle type) of the radiotherapy.

And they keep at me endlessly about "drink water, drink water"; must have shares in the local waterworks or somesuch.

Remember, Rosie the Riveter was right....

[annathepiper]

I was going to ask if this was something that you'd learned from nurses up there, yeah; maybe it's a difference in treatments between Canada and the U.S. Very interesting. :) I'll mention that and your remarks re: the Cancer Society to the nurse where I'm going.

I try to drink a lot of water anyway, so yeah! I keep a filtered water pitcher at work.

What did Rosie the Riveter say?

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Oh, pretty famously up here, you see it emblazoned on fridge magnets and lunchboxes, etc.: cartoon drawing of Rosie the Riveter in a kerchief looking determined, with the caption "We can do it!" -- rather a nice image, in my opinion.

Cancer Society up here is pretty amazing, what with those Survivor pins, mid-summer marches and all. I should note fairly that although dealing with this stuff can be temporarily all-consuming **if one wishes it to be**, it is a poor substitute for having a life; I should very happily be shot of it all and just get on with getting on, as there are many other good and excellent accomplishments awaiting. Like, mmm, coming up with a General Theory of Cats, or finishing the next Great Canadian Novel -- a national pastime here... :-)

[annathepiper]

Ah yes, that quote, I should have remembered!

And hey, I'm totally down with the General Theory of Cats, as well as the Next Great Novel. ;)

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Well, _This Road_ is out on submission again; it might be the Canadian version thereof (she said, immodestly....)

[annathepiper]

Now why did I not yet grasp that you're working on the writing thing too? Cool beans. :) What's your genre?

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Started out with Regencies while in grad-school; recently finished a Great Canadian Novel Manuscript set in northeastern British Columbia (but lacking significant lumberjacks and there is not a single mention of a Scotch pine although there are some noble Larches); my agent is shopping it around (the manuscript, not the tree). Presently, and very pseudonymously, collaborating on hard SF [focus on world-building and xenolinguistics] with a friend who's a bit more hard-bitten at the SF game than I am.

Am big believer in pseudonymy as long as I yet intend to work professionally in some other endeavour (altho' I could fairly argue that I am already retired as of the end of last year). Besides which, I collect such grand characters that way.....

ETA 1: Various offset reasons for wanting to work behind a frequently-changing literary pseudonym, but major one is that I am the only female working in a hands-on professional capacity within my particular industry/country pair, and as has already been pointed out, I am kidding myself if I think that I am all that obscure. Some of my co-workers would be probably a bit cool towards the idea of having a writer wandering around taking head-snapshots of them as potential characters. And no, I really do try not to write myself into the story; got over that in middle-school. ^_^

ETA 2: And should ask, "what your genre?" (she said, giggling)....

[annathepiper]

Cool beans! Now, are you published as well as agented? Are there Canadian-pubbed novels with your name on them? ^_^

I've got a friend who came out with her first books through Dragon Moon Press, but last I checked, they don't take unsolicited submissions anymore. She figured at the time that she might have an easier time getting into print via a smaller Canadian press than she would with the large NY publishers.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Getting there, hon. One zap at a time. Two cats at a time, apparently...

[annathepiper]

Heh, yes. ^_^ Fred and George took turns lying on me yesterday afternoon as I couch-dozed. They are indeed such helpful kitties. I expect one of them to be trying to help me eat my breakfast any second now!

[deneethe.livejournal.com]

Just saw your post, you should ask your doc about getting Biafine cream, it's made for radiation dermatitis whereas Silvadene cream is a sulfa based antibiotic and because it has a silver based formulation, it may not be the best thing when getting zapped by electromagnetic waves. I hope you feel better soon :-)

[annathepiper]

Well, I've only got one more week to go--and the Silvadene has done its job, which is to say, made my burn hurt a lot less. I've mostly been using the OTC aloe/vitamin E cream, which has continued to be quite effective.

But thanks much for the suggestion. :)

[bloody-keri.livejournal.com]

I'm sure the radiation is compromising your immune system, yeah. Did they say anything about that or anything you can take as a preventive? Well, besides a boatload of vitamin C, I imagine. That's really the best cold and infection prevention, or so I've been told by the nurse in my dr's office.

[annathepiper]

They've got me bolstering my Vitamin D3 intake, and as per the recommendation of angharads_house I'm also boosting B3 for the time being. The medical staff at Evergreen didn't particularly mention boosting C, though they did mention other general things that they tell you in order to keep up your health, such as getting a lot of rest and drinking a lot of water.