One third done! No. 11 was this morning.
The last couple of days, it's been a little quieter at the rads center. One of the three machines was broken. I was thinking, soooo happy it wasn't mine! A tech guy had to come from Lyon, which is a good 3 hours away and a part had to be ordered. The techs told me that my machine, Primus 1 and the Primus 2 are logically identical. They can transfer the info between them so even if one of them died, we could continue treatments. Also, the Annexe machine does different kinds of radiotherapy. I noticed that because any younger patients also went in the Primus doors.
But it was up and running now and we had the happy, Alsatians back chatting away in the waiting area.
I had my first apt. with the nice Onc-Rad lady. She decided that I was too "congested" (I ain't even going to try to translate that!) and gave me a Rx for something to de-congest my boob. Figured I'd ask at the pharmacy (who see waaaay too much of me and the husband!)
Turns out it's an extract from grape seeds and is to improve circulation. Wasn't reimbursed by the French system. Weird as my boob cream was. It even says on the pamphlet that it's for the effects of radiation in breast cancer! Oh well.
I'm also a bit red but it doesn't hurt and she's not too concerned.
She explained some strangeness with my surgeon. Turns out that he not only had to qualify to do breast surgery but he had to get accreditation for the hospital as well. Only Strauss, Hautepierre (that's the big teaching hospital) and the Breast Center at the Orangerie could do it originally. He's also the only Breast Guy at Adassa. So it was kind of a double task for him.
I sent him a photo of me with the "How I spent my 50th birthday" sign and he wrote back;
I have a Secret Resource, a friend who is very religious in New York who is a doctor, and I've known almost 30 years. He's my go-to guy for these kinds of questions. He doesn't know French, Hebrew transliteration or not, but I was hoping he could still figure it out.
"It's a blessing" he wrote me back "Until 120. May you live to be 120 year old, just like Moshe Rabbenu/Moses".
No, I didn't need the last word! I thought it was rather sweet. I was touched! The French says "and a very good, and better, year". Sounds awkward in translation.
Meanwhile, the side effects are catching up to me. It's a weird kind of tiredness. My body doesn't want to do what I tell it. It's not sleepiness at all. It's like I'm carrying around a weight. Hard to describe. At this point, I'm not really suffereing. I just need to ease up on things.
I took two of the kids to school this morning and headed right up to Robertsau. Tried a different route, through Bischheim and Schiltig but that was a mistake. Big back up near the beer breweries (Alsace is a big beer region, not surprising given it's German heritage). I think I'll just shoot up Avenue de la Robersau, past the Council of Europe from now on when leaving from downtown. From home, I go through Wacken and Schiltig, past the paper factory.
Special privilege, I get to go through the front entrance. Now, all visitors to Sainte Anne have to drive through several kim's of 30km limited traffic. This is probably 20mph. There is a radar somewhere in that so no cheating! Get to avoid that horrible, slow area.
I was still early, despite the back-up. I heard someone say hi and saw this young guy... Oh no! It's Dr. H.! Such a sweetie. So nice. So young-looking when not wearing a white coat!! I'm kind of relieved I have his colleague, as nice as he is! He was just asking how it was going and I assured him that it was fine. I'm just so happy to not have to do chemo that getting through this won't be a big deal for me.
The last couple of days, it's been a little quieter at the rads center. One of the three machines was broken. I was thinking, soooo happy it wasn't mine! A tech guy had to come from Lyon, which is a good 3 hours away and a part had to be ordered. The techs told me that my machine, Primus 1 and the Primus 2 are logically identical. They can transfer the info between them so even if one of them died, we could continue treatments. Also, the Annexe machine does different kinds of radiotherapy. I noticed that because any younger patients also went in the Primus doors.
But it was up and running now and we had the happy, Alsatians back chatting away in the waiting area.
I had my first apt. with the nice Onc-Rad lady. She decided that I was too "congested" (I ain't even going to try to translate that!) and gave me a Rx for something to de-congest my boob. Figured I'd ask at the pharmacy (who see waaaay too much of me and the husband!)
Turns out it's an extract from grape seeds and is to improve circulation. Wasn't reimbursed by the French system. Weird as my boob cream was. It even says on the pamphlet that it's for the effects of radiation in breast cancer! Oh well.
I'm also a bit red but it doesn't hurt and she's not too concerned.
She explained some strangeness with my surgeon. Turns out that he not only had to qualify to do breast surgery but he had to get accreditation for the hospital as well. Only Strauss, Hautepierre (that's the big teaching hospital) and the Breast Center at the Orangerie could do it originally. He's also the only Breast Guy at Adassa. So it was kind of a double task for him.
I sent him a photo of me with the "How I spent my 50th birthday" sign and he wrote back;
Ad mea Ve esrim! Et une très bonne , et meilleure , année !!
Bien cordialement
N.G(last name)
Oh no. Hebrew, in French transliteration. This is a disaster with me, since already my Hebrew isn't the greatest. Then, I have to think of how the word is pronounced in French before figuring out how to say it... Better to just read the original Hebrew. At this point, it's easier...
Plus, to add injury to insult, I can't copy and paste to Google Translate!
I have a Secret Resource, a friend who is very religious in New York who is a doctor, and I've known almost 30 years. He's my go-to guy for these kinds of questions. He doesn't know French, Hebrew transliteration or not, but I was hoping he could still figure it out.
"It's a blessing" he wrote me back "Until 120. May you live to be 120 year old, just like Moshe Rabbenu/Moses".
No, I didn't need the last word! I thought it was rather sweet. I was touched! The French says "and a very good, and better, year". Sounds awkward in translation.
Meanwhile, the side effects are catching up to me. It's a weird kind of tiredness. My body doesn't want to do what I tell it. It's not sleepiness at all. It's like I'm carrying around a weight. Hard to describe. At this point, I'm not really suffereing. I just need to ease up on things.
I took two of the kids to school this morning and headed right up to Robertsau. Tried a different route, through Bischheim and Schiltig but that was a mistake. Big back up near the beer breweries (Alsace is a big beer region, not surprising given it's German heritage). I think I'll just shoot up Avenue de la Robersau, past the Council of Europe from now on when leaving from downtown. From home, I go through Wacken and Schiltig, past the paper factory.
Special privilege, I get to go through the front entrance. Now, all visitors to Sainte Anne have to drive through several kim's of 30km limited traffic. This is probably 20mph. There is a radar somewhere in that so no cheating! Get to avoid that horrible, slow area.
I was still early, despite the back-up. I heard someone say hi and saw this young guy... Oh no! It's Dr. H.! Such a sweetie. So nice. So young-looking when not wearing a white coat!! I'm kind of relieved I have his colleague, as nice as he is! He was just asking how it was going and I assured him that it was fine. I'm just so happy to not have to do chemo that getting through this won't be a big deal for me.
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