Update

It occurred to me that I know how radiation is going everyday, but none of you do, unless I tell you! :)
No drama. Same routine every day. I have had a few ask how you get radiation - sorry I didn't include that in my first radiation blog. While I am laying on the table a big machine moves back and forth over me. I can see and hear the machine moving, and I can see the lens inside open and close but I don't feel anything.

As far as the medicines go - I'm more discouraged. I take Arimidex every day, which, as I mentioned before, weakens my bones. So, Dr. Rich has also put me on Fosamax which I take once a week. Now, my understanding was that Fosamax would strengthen my bones but Nancy [PA] told me that the possible side-effects are increased chance of fractures in "unusual" places and neucrosis of the jaw. Kent and I are meeting with Dr. Rich next week to discuss that!

Last Friday I got my port out! Yay!!
Here is the background. I went to see Dr. Tittenser on Wednesday the 21st. I was there for 2 hours because it was her first day back after vacation AND she was on call at the hospital! Great fun - and I didn't have a book to read. :(

She said she could do it Friday if I wanted. I said all I had on Friday was radiation at 10:15. She said, "Oh, let's just do this first thing in the morning and you'll be able to right to you radiation appointment! Uh, no.

I arrived at the hospital at 7:30 am. At 9:15 I asked Kent to call Dr. Clark and tell him I'd be late for my appointment. He did. We had to call again, because we actually left the hospital at 11:20. :) Fortunately, they could still get me in for radiation.
I left with these and NO PORT!


That means NO MORE CHEMO!!!!!
I pretty much slept all afternoon. I had to rest up so I could eat at Milagros! Ole.

this is for all of you cancer survivors and for all of you who have loved me through it!
I love you all - Nancy

Road trip, days 6 & 7

Monday, day 6 was pretty long and boring. We drove all the way to Wendover where we spent the night. We basically just drove and made short stops along the way.


You can see from the pictures how exciting the scenery was! :)
The only place we found to eat was a Pizza Hut. There was a large family group having a birthday party so that kept us entertained while we ate.

First time I've seen this guy in person: Kent stood out in the middle of the road and took a picture for me - isn't he [Kent not the cowboy] awesome?


I texted our kids and told them we were spending their inheritance. Most demanded that we double it! ;)

Tuesday was also a pretty boring drive. We drove across the salt flats. Then instead of driving through Salt Lake freeway traffic, we took some back roads. It was much prettier. We stopped at this place call Iosepa.

It was a little town settled by some Polynesians. The name in English is Joseph - for Joseph F. Smith, who was the prophet at the time. When the temple in Hawaii was built, most of them returned home. Here are some pictures at the cemetery.

That was our last stop before arriving home. It was an AMAZING trip! Thank you, Kent. How I love you!!!!!!

How is radiation going?

I guess I've kind of left you hanging since I got my tattoos! Sorry. I started radiation treatments on Monday. I think I told you that the office assured me the visits would be 20 minutes max. Well, maybe starting tomorrow! :)
Basically, here is the routine. I arrive at 10:15 am, everyday. I wave to the receptionist as I pass through the lobby. I go to the dressing room and change. I go to the waiting room and wait - usually 1 minute or less.
Then one of the therapists comes and gets me. So far I've met Brooke, Brooke, and Gary. No, I don't mean the same Brooke - there are 2 of them. I go into the room and lay on a hard, flat table. I have a pillow under my knees and my neck is in this "V" shaped thing and my head rests on the table behind. Then I raise both of my arms over my head and hold onto a metal handle behind my head. The therapist puts a large rubber band around my feet so that I don't wiggle, or cross them during the treatment. Sounds comfy, huh??? :) They DO always ask what kind of music I would like to listen to while I get treated. Anyone have requests?
That takes, maybe, 5-7 minutes. When I'm done I go back and get dressed and wave again as I walk through the lobby to the door. That's it.
Here are the reasons, so far, that it has taken longer than they said:
Monday they had to recheck all of the measurements they had done last week - to make sure they were accurate. I'm thankful for that - everything was perfect!
Tuesday they did a little bit different treatment. The doctor has ordered this treatment every other day. The therapists call it "using the cold stuff". What they do is lay this big square of "gel" stuff over the area and then do the radiation. It is cold and it brings the radiation up closer to the skin. After my treatment, they sort of required me to meet with the onocology social worker. I'm glad that they provide this kind of service, but since I've already gone through chemo - I've been made aware of the services there to help me - plus I have all of you!!!!! YOU are my social workers!
Wednesday, today - I met with Dr. Clark following my therapy. That happens every Wednesday. Wednesday is also treat day - they have this shelf covered with juice, fruit, and munchies - free to anyone in the office that day. ;)

I've been using the lotion recommended by my friend. The nurse asked me today what I was using. She was very happy and positive about Radiaderm - said it seems to work really, really well for those she has seen use it. That made me feel even better about buying it!
Well - that's all there is to it, so far! Thank you for your continued prayers and love on my behalf. They mean a lot! Tomorrow - the rest of the road trip.

Road trip, day 5

The motel actually served breakfast today. They didn’t have enough seating for a Labor Day crowd. We were lucky to get a table. I saw one guy using a box as a table!
We drove to a place called Merced for sacrament meeting. I thought it was interesting that the stake there has a grape orchard for their welfare farm. They had an assigned day and certain rows that were their responsibility.

After church, we spent the whole day on the road. We drove on I-5, up the center of the state of California, which was long, hot, and not very interesting. I enjoyed that drive more than Kent did, but I also took an hour-long nap! ;)

Our destination was another national park. Neither of us had heard of it before. We both wished we had gotten there earlier in the day so we could have spent more time. We arrived at the south entrance of Lassen Volcanic National Park at about 5 p.m.

It is a small national park, but the scenery was/is amazing. The volcano that was here originally, erupted in 1914 - the park is what was left behind. Just look at the beautiful sites we saw:

Yes, this is snow:

This lake had ice in it 10 days ago!

My favorites, of course, are the flowers:

Our stops were all pretty short and quick because it was getting dark.
The drive to our motel was also beautiful. We are staying in Susanville.

When we got to the motel there was a 1982 Roy Orbison concert on television. That was really fun! Sorry, if that really weirds some of you out!

Road trip, day 4

We ate our breakfast at a great Bakery across the street from the motel. We bought lunch to take with us, too.

We enjoyed the beautiful drive to Yosemite. The drive up over the pass was amazing. Pictures of the stops along the way:

Flowers:

This is called Half Dome - you can see why:

When we arrived in Yosemite Canyon there were a lot of cars and people there, to say the least. - We didn’t think real clearly as we left on this trip. Labor Day weekend - sheesh!!! We drove around for a long time - enjoying the sights. We were lucky enough to find a parking space. We went on the Yosemite Falls hike. It was so nice to wander through the woods - I wish you could smell the pines like we did!! Here is a picture of the falls and also just a shot of the crowds.

Other waterfalls: [I love waterfalls!]

Before giving up our parking space, we put up our camping chairs under some trees and ate our lunch. Here was our view!

We drove out of Yosemite Canyon to make our way to Mariposa Grove. More sites along the way:

Yosemite Valley in the background

This didn't turn out very well - but we're going through a tunnel:

We loved our visit to Mariposa. It is one of the few groves of sequoias in Yosemite. The huge trees were amazing!! We walked about a mile through the grove. Here are some pictures:

These are the roots of a fallen tree!

Look how big around the trunk is

This is called Grizzly Giant. The limb going out at a 90 degree angle is bigger around than any of the non-sequoia tree trunks in the forest.

More trunks:

We spent the night in a place called Oakhurst, CA. We spent a lot of time trying to find something "small" for dinner, lunch for tomorrow, gas for the car, and ice for the cooler. I was really happy to get to the motel.

Road trip, day 3

Okay, first I must apologize to the palm trees that I called “mutants” yesterday. I also apologize to anyone who has tender feelings towards them. I found out today that they are actually tree-sized yucca plants. Their true name - Joshua trees. :)

We had breakfast [not as good as yesterday’s] in a casino, of course. Then we headed for Death Valley.



Here is an indication of what Death Valley is like - the Visitor’s Center is called “Furnace Creek”. Here are some pictures of the drive into our first destination:

Here we are at Sea Level:

We arrived at our first destination, Golden Canyon Trail, around 9:00 a.m. and it was 95º. It was a 2-mile round trip walk up a canyon. It pretty much all looked like this:

This is one of 2 green plants that we saw - it is called Desert Holly:

It was so hot, we turned around and came back without even getting to the end!

Our next stop was Badwater Basin. This is the lowest point in North America - 282 feet below Sea Level. We actually walked out onto the salt flats a bit. Here are some pictures:

This place is called the Devil’s Golf Course because “only the devil could play golf on such rough links.”

Our last walk of the day - 107º! We walked around this boardwalk. It is called Salt Creek and in the winter it has water and fish in it.

The fish are called Pup fish and they are about ½” in size. I’m not sure where they go in the summer! The plant around me is called “Pickle Weed”. I thought that was appropriate for the briny surface it lives in!

We spent the night in Mammoth Lakes, CA. It was a beautiful forest and the temp was in the 70s! We went for a nice walk, bought ice cream for dinner and watched for bears. We didn’t see any, of course. [I have a history of not seeing the mammals in any park we've been to - no matter how many signs claim they are around! ;)]