Timing

Why is it when something big is coming up in life, you decide to take on the most interesting of projects?

When I was pregnant with Jack, we decided to replace all of our flooring and paint the entire house.
When I was pregnant with Sam, I started a new program at Visions from the ground up (curriculum writing, recruiting, designing).
When I was diagnosed with cancer, we had contractors in remodeling the master bathroom.

Timing is interesting! The weekend before I started radiation we decided to remodel a little corner of our yard.  After remodeling the bathroom, we were left with a large planter box that used to hold a fenced off atrium that our bathroom window looked out onto. We tore the fence enclosure down and the planter box was too awkward to just replace with plants.  Brian voted for a fountain and we started to price them out.  I really wanted to make it a special corner for the boys.  I envisioned a Bev Bos (an early childhood guru) inspired play area, but was having trouble getting Brian to see my vision.  Thanks to Pinterest, I started a Kids Backyard board and was able to show him the ideas that until then had just been in my mind.  He was on board and we got to work gathering supplies.

We spent the entire weekend before starting radiation in the backyard creating the play area.  We got an old tractor tire from Fair Oaks Water District and made it into a sandbox.  We attached IKEA baskets to the wall to create space for sand toys.  We made a plexiglass framed easel for the boys to paint directly on.  We also attached rain gutters to the wall for ball and water play.  It turned out AMAZING and the boys love it.  It is the perfect area because it is the one part of our yard that is shaded from 4-6 which makes for great after school play.  Brian was even thankful I pushed him this direction once he was able to see the vision come to life :-)   Oh yes, there will always be a preschool teacher in me :-)

All Tatted Up :-)

Yes, you read it right........I got my first tattoo.

Actually to be completely honest, I got my first four tattoos.

No, it isn't a butterfly, or my hubby's initials or my children's names.  It is four small freckle sized dots.

A part of preparation for radiation is to get small tattoos so that each day you are lined up in the exact same position on the machine.

I'm sure other people have much more exciting stories of their first tattoos-freshman year in college, crazy night in Vegas, with a bunch of friends or planned and debated for months and months.  I definitely didn't think that my first tattoo would be given by the radiation nurse at Kaiser, but again it's part of the process.

A start to the last unknown part of the process......radiation.

5 weeks of daily treatment.  As my doctor put it, "Your lungs can take six weeks of radiation so we will stop you at 5".  It will be a 5 minute treatment where radiation will enter my body in three different passes.

The possible side effects are mostly topical (burned skin, blisters, tightening of skin) and fatigue.

I will treat my skin daily with aloe and hydrocortisone and hope that my skin that typically doesn't sunburn will lend itself well to this process.  I have to use mild soap, natural deodorant, and shave sparingly (so if I smell it's not my fault :-).

I took solace in the fact that I start treatment April 30 and end June 1st.  It makes it seem nicer to wrap radiation up in the month of May.  I will be able to start summer break on the home stretch of breast cancer treatment-just one last chemo drug once every three weeks until October.