No More Radiotherapy

(To read my cancer story from the beginning start here – April / May 2018 – You Have Cancer)

Finally in to my last week of radiotherapy

I had my usual meeting with my Oncologist “The Ghost of things to come” She was surprised at how good my mouth was. I’d had none of the ulcers, blisters, thrush, uncomfort that she had warned me about, but was still insistent it could happen and was often as much as 4 weeks after treatment finished that you could still get it.

I could be just one of the lucky ones and only experience a bit of dryness or, as it happened it was more a case of producing too much saliva and spittle which meant I dribbled a bit for a few weeks, other than that though I was fine.

I got to the last Friday knowing I had a nice weekend off followed my the last 3 radiotherapy sessions on the following Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

I was feeling really good now, was getting lots of exercise but was still not eating a great deal, was still losing weight (down to just over 11 stone now) and when talking to my GP about it I asked if I could join my local gym after my treatment had finished.

She said to double check with my consultant 1st but also got me registered for a pre-gym assessment for in about a fortnights time.

Monday and Tuesday’s treatments came and went and I was finally on to my last days treatment of Radiotherapy 🙂

I took in boxes of chocolates on the final day, as it was a Wednesday I knew it was my Oncologists appointment and my support teams assessment.

I got there nice and early so I could go up to my old ward 32 and leave them some chocolates and thank them all, it was lovely to see the familiar faces and they all said how well I looked.

I then took a box of chocolates to the nurse who had been doing the dressing on my leg and looking after my skin and then headed down to the treatment room for my 33rd and last radiotherapy session 🙂

It was my usual team. so I thanked them all and gave them all chocolates before going in for my final treatment.

No idea why, but for some reason this was about the trickiest of all the sessions I had.

They started to strap me down but I just had to stop them, undo me and let me sit up for a couple of minutes.

They strapped me in again and I just wasn’t comfortable and throughout the whole session had to resist the strong urge to raise my arm to get them to stop and come and undo me.

My counting was all wrong, the music was all wrong, I heard them come in the room at the end, and it felt like an eternity before they started undoing me.

I thought the straps had got caught, opened my eyes for only the 2nd time and was close to panicking when they finally got it off.

In reality, it was no different to the other 32 sessions but for some strange reason it felt so different and the relief when they sat me up was amazing.

I thanked them and thanked them again then said I had a strange request – “can I take my mask home with me?”

It turned out not to be such a strange request as apparently a lot of people like to keep their masks 🙂