It’s now two weeks since I had my last radiotherapy treatment. I had 20 treatments, one every weekday. My energy levels plummeted to the extent that by weeks three and four, I found myself nodding off in the supermarket car park, in the hospital waiting room and in my car parked outside my home only maybe 20 metres from the front door. I felt just like a marionette when the puppet master had taken a tea break, leaving me collapsed in a tangle of disjointed limbs. For the last week this level of tiredness has been improving slowly and I now only need a rest – as opposed to an hour-long sleep – and only every second day.
Radiotherapy continues to work for several weeks after the last session and all last week my neck became more and more tender, progressing to really painful. However, the top layer of skin has now peeled off, leaving a new very pink layer with just an outline of brown burnt skin. Although still sensitive, this is nowhere near as painful.
My reward to myself for having to undergo this latest health challenge is to go to Bali for a couple of weeks with my best friend and I’m hoping that my neck will have shed all the burnt skin and be well on the way to rejuvenating itself before we get on the plane. Hopefully that really will be the end of this unexpected and unlooked for experience.
What I’ve learned from this latest journey with cancer is that I have a wonderful support network of people in my life. These angels checked in with me regularly with offers of help with whatever I needed or just to say “Hi, how’s it going”. The people I only heard from once or not at all surprised me. If I’m honest, it does feel hurtful, especially considering who these particular people are. Having said that, I guess they had stuff going on in their own lives and now that I’m back to normal again (whatever that is!) I hope to reconnect with the ones who seemed to ‘head for the hills’.
I know we shouldn’t project into the future but having started out well, 2013 has not been my favourite year; I’m really hoping for a better 2014.
© Jane Gillespie 2013 – Author, “Journey to Me”. www.yourlife-celebrated.com.au
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