Fighting Hodgkin's Lymphoma: February 2012

Well right before I started my radiation therapy, I did have a CAT scan. In the beginning of January we were extremely happy to hear Dr. Pallera say that I was now in remission. On January 16th, I started radiation therapy. My treatment field included my right side, starting right above my jaw line, under my arm pit, to the middle of my chest. I didn't have to get all marked up with a sharpie like I had heard, because my radiologist put all of my marks on my mask that I had to wear. Yes I had to be lock down in a mask every morning.(It did have tiny holes in it so that I could breathe.) This mask is so tight over your face that if you had your eyes open when they locked it onto your face, you would not be able to close you eyes once it was on. Thank goodness that I am not claustrophobic. Not sure what those people would do. Guess they would have to be medicated. By about the second week, the inside of my mouth started getting sore. My doctor told me that I shouldn't be feeling any of the effects of radiation yet. But by about 2 1/2 weeks into it, my mouth was totally ulcerated underneath my tongue on my right side. I could hardly talk. I couldn't eat. I could only be on a liquid diet for about a week. And to make it worse, I couldn't drink anything cold. I could only handle liquids that were the same temperature as my mouth. This only lasted about 5 days, thank goodness. Once I brought this problem to my Doctors attention, he changed my treatment field alittle, and he continued to treat me below the jaw line now. I finished my radiation on February 9th. Now I am just going on with my life, working like normal, just waiting to do my last PET scan. Dr. Pallera wants me to wait 6 weeks after radiation is over before I do it though. Just to make sure all my swelling goes down.

My hair is definitely coming back fast. It's about 1/2 an inch long and I've already colored it 3 times. I recently bleached it blonde because I am now trying to camouflage the new bald spot I have in the back of my head due to radiation.