As I said, it is better to have a disc hernia than a tumour, so when I heard that I have two disc hernias I kind of felt happy. Weird, I know! I still have pain and discomfort but feel much better than a couple of weeks ago. I started doing physiotherapy and I am confident it will help. My posture is apparently wrong and needs to be corrected, which might take months, but I will be a good girl and do my daily exercises, as recommended by the physiotherapist.
I feel like an old lady. I also feel too young to feel this old.
Showing posts with label Physiotherapy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Physiotherapy. Show all posts
01 June 2011
17 January 2011
Is that it?
The title of this post should be “1 down 24 more to go” but unfortunately, suffering from chemo-brain, I am not sure if I will be able to count backwards...
Chemo-brain is an interesting phenomenon, I read about it but until recently I couldn’t believe it was real. It all started when I noticed I had difficulties reading, words didn’t make sense and I couldn’t concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. Then I started forgetting things and very often I couldn’t find the right words to say what I wanted. It is all very subtle, it’s not like if I went completely gaga! At least not yet! It is very frustrating though. I blame it on anxiety and fatigue combined with the chemotherapy treatment. Trying to deal with my current chicken memory condition, I started writing everything on my agenda and keeping lists for everything, but, as expected, I tend to forget to look at my agenda and end up mixing appointment and arriving too early or too late.
Luckily today I got to my first radiotherapy appointment on time, no mix ups, and no delays. I chose to be the first patient every morning, it keeps the rest of my day free and gets me back into a routine. This week I will be discussing the possibility of going back to work with the occupational health physician of my employer, if he agrees that I am well enough to go back, having radiotherapy early in the morning is great, I can go straight from the clinic to the office without wasting too much time.
Let me now try to give a short description of my day. As usual I spent half of the night awake, stressing about everything and upset with myself for not being able to relax. I woke up before the alarm rang and got up feeling dead tired. It is a gloomy, rainy day today, so I decided to take a cab to the clinic instead of waiting for the bus in the dark and rain. After a small chat with the radiotherapist about skin care, side effects and all that usual bla-bla, I signed a form, once again, and went to the treatment room. “Undress waist up”, “lie down here”, “put your arms there”, “a bit more to the side”, “now don’t move”, “try to relax”, etc. The radiotherapists make some pen marks on my skin, right where my lovely tattoos are, align the machine and explain me that they will start by taking an x-ray of my chest. They leave the room, leaving Red Hot Chilli Peppers playing, the By the Way album, if I am not wrong, and after three songs I was done. The radiation is given in two positions and each radiation lasts no longer than 15 or 20 seconds. So, the machine rotates until it gets into the right position, beams me some photons, rotates again, beams me some more and that’s it. I felt absolutely nothing, my arms didn’t hurt and all that stress was for nothing.
That’s it. This was my first radiotherapy session. I got dressed and headed to the ground floor, to the Macmillan centre where I had booked my first massage. I am entitled to four massages, it is a luxury that I will not waste. The massage was nice, I got so relaxed I almost fell asleep.
At noon I had an appointment at the St John and St Elizabeth Hospital with the physiotherapist, once again I lie down, third time this morning, and get a massage and some stretching exercises for my arm, which is getting better and better.
As soon as I got home I applied some of the aqueous cream the radiotherapist gave me. I hope my skin won’t get too damaged.
It doesn’t seem like a lot, but for me this was a full day. I feel exhausted. Going to watch some trash TV now.
Chemo-brain is an interesting phenomenon, I read about it but until recently I couldn’t believe it was real. It all started when I noticed I had difficulties reading, words didn’t make sense and I couldn’t concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. Then I started forgetting things and very often I couldn’t find the right words to say what I wanted. It is all very subtle, it’s not like if I went completely gaga! At least not yet! It is very frustrating though. I blame it on anxiety and fatigue combined with the chemotherapy treatment. Trying to deal with my current chicken memory condition, I started writing everything on my agenda and keeping lists for everything, but, as expected, I tend to forget to look at my agenda and end up mixing appointment and arriving too early or too late.
Luckily today I got to my first radiotherapy appointment on time, no mix ups, and no delays. I chose to be the first patient every morning, it keeps the rest of my day free and gets me back into a routine. This week I will be discussing the possibility of going back to work with the occupational health physician of my employer, if he agrees that I am well enough to go back, having radiotherapy early in the morning is great, I can go straight from the clinic to the office without wasting too much time.
Let me now try to give a short description of my day. As usual I spent half of the night awake, stressing about everything and upset with myself for not being able to relax. I woke up before the alarm rang and got up feeling dead tired. It is a gloomy, rainy day today, so I decided to take a cab to the clinic instead of waiting for the bus in the dark and rain. After a small chat with the radiotherapist about skin care, side effects and all that usual bla-bla, I signed a form, once again, and went to the treatment room. “Undress waist up”, “lie down here”, “put your arms there”, “a bit more to the side”, “now don’t move”, “try to relax”, etc. The radiotherapists make some pen marks on my skin, right where my lovely tattoos are, align the machine and explain me that they will start by taking an x-ray of my chest. They leave the room, leaving Red Hot Chilli Peppers playing, the By the Way album, if I am not wrong, and after three songs I was done. The radiation is given in two positions and each radiation lasts no longer than 15 or 20 seconds. So, the machine rotates until it gets into the right position, beams me some photons, rotates again, beams me some more and that’s it. I felt absolutely nothing, my arms didn’t hurt and all that stress was for nothing.
At noon I had an appointment at the St John and St Elizabeth Hospital with the physiotherapist, once again I lie down, third time this morning, and get a massage and some stretching exercises for my arm, which is getting better and better.
As soon as I got home I applied some of the aqueous cream the radiotherapist gave me. I hope my skin won’t get too damaged.
It doesn’t seem like a lot, but for me this was a full day. I feel exhausted. Going to watch some trash TV now.
05 January 2011
Déjà vu!
So... the lymphatic cording is back! It's really annoying, it seems like the inconveniences just pile up.
About ten days ago my right arm started hurting and I started having difficulties lifting it up. It feels like there are tight cords in my arm, pulling it down, it is actually visible when I pull the arm up, two or three rope-like lines sticking out from under my arm, a bit like in this picture.
About ten days ago my right arm started hurting and I started having difficulties lifting it up. It feels like there are tight cords in my arm, pulling it down, it is actually visible when I pull the arm up, two or three rope-like lines sticking out from under my arm, a bit like in this picture.
As during radiotherapy I need to be able to hold my arms straight up, I decided to call my surgeon to show him my arm and ask what to do. He believes there's nothing to worry about and that it doesn't look like lymphedema. He recommended some more physiotherapy sessions where I will get massages and stretching exercises to try to soften the cords. Last time physiotherapy helped, so I can only hope this can be solved quickly, preferably before the 17th, when radiotherapy is due to start.
Today I also had to go to the clinic to have my port flushed, something I have to do every four weeks, give or take.
I can't get rid of hospitals, doctors, nurses, therapists, and the like!
08 September 2010
A flashback: cording
After the second surgery, and as a result of having some lymph glands removed from my armpit, I developed cording, which is not only painful but very annoying because it limited (a lot) my arm movement. It felt like having a very tight cord running from the axilla towards the hand, pulling my arm down, making it very stiff. The tissue was so tight it was visible to the eye, under my arm, exactly like a stretched cord. When I complained to the surgeon, he referred me to a physiotherapist who massaged my arm and stretched the cords until I regained full arm movement. It took several weeks, but I can now finally move my arm normally and without pain. I still can’t lift heavy weights and I have to be careful not to get infections in this arm, but the improvement is so big I feel like new.
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