The rash began to spread. It was sneaking to the other side of my chest, up to my collar bone, down my ribs and towards my back. I didn't know what caused it, but I hoped it would go away soon.
Two days after I noticed the rash spreading I got very itchy. My chest, my legs, my ears, my face. . . everything was itchy. It felt like ants were crawling all over me. This was my last day of radiation. It would all be over soon. The cancer diagnosis came in October, the surgery came in November, radiation took up all of December and January. As January came to a close so did everything they needed to do to me. From now on, I would simply get better. At least, that was my plan.
The next morning I felt like a blow fish. My face was swollen and puffy. I was reacting to something. The doctor thought it was the antibiotics she gave me for the rash. It could have been the Benedryl I took the other night. It doesn't matter which it was. My eyes were squinty and my cheeks were puffy.
I think my body decided it was done. It was finished fighting all the foreign stuff and had given up. The best plan I could think of was to keep all foreign material away for a time.
On a positive note, my radiation was finished. The technicians called me one of the nice ones and they were sad I was finished. I'm glad I was positive. I wouldn't have wanted to make their day more difficult. I also found out my radiation oncologist is telling other patients about this teacher who got so tired from treatment she went home from work and went to bed (yes, that was me). I surely made my mark. I had no idea that my situation wasn’t typical. I had no idea I would be an encouragement for others; they could say at least they didn’t experience what I did or perhaps it was a caution that things could get difficult.
I am thankful for the healing and safe keeping. I am thankful the swelling is going down in my face. I trust that I will continue to heal. I’m thankful that the damaging part is finally finished.
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