Just more of the same

There's not much to report, but I know my readers get worried if they don't see regular posts, so I'll just report that my 5-minute exam with Dr Gillis this week was that short because it's all good news. The growth is smaller each week, and so far, the skin in the radiated area is fine, which means my twice daily slatherings of aloe, followed by Eucerin have been effective. The only thing is this weird rash on my back, just outside the radiated area, which just looks hideous, and doesn't hurt or itch, and for which we are trying various over-the-counter unguents.

Renecito and I share April as our birthday month and he turned five this week, which blows my mind. This little figurine is part of his birthday present that I based on an image that Rene created for Cito's bd party evite. The party is this coming weekend and the theme is "Citolympics". We, the guests, are going to have to compete for prizes in various contests of skill and prowess. I'll mostly be trying to keep the sun off me.

The fatigue is about the same, but I'm learning to work around it. I very much enjoyed Meg's visit, and thanks to last week's rain making people who'd signed up cancel, Meg was able to participate in the open print studio at Somarts with me. I was very happy with my week's work, which included these images of my parents based on their high school graduation photos.

I signed up for the Linocut class again, starting in late June, but I'm enjoying the little break from having linoleum shreds all over my table and pencil smudged fingers.

Another candle

I had a birthday last week and celebrated in a quiet way. Renecito helped me blow out the candles on my birthday cake, as you can see here.

Radiation is progressing. I'm almost halfway through, and other than some weird acne on my back near the zap site, my skin is doing fine, now getting slathered twice a day with aloe, then with Eucerin. When I compare the side effects with chemo, radiation is a piece of cake. I saw Dr. Gillis for my weekly exam this morning and she was pleased with my progress. She can feel a definite diminution in the size of the node since we started radiation treatment. In fact, it's so small now, it's getting rather uncomfortable to have her dig around trying to find it each week. Very promising.

However, the fatigue is really bumming me out. It doesn't seem to matter if I get plenty of sleep and rest, I'm just tired from the time I get up, and other than the lunches I still go out for in the 'hood, and the small birthday outings recently, I mostly sit around and read and do crossword puzzles, and doze. I have managed to get three lino plates carved in the moments of energy (consequently my apartment is not white-glove clean), which is good, since tonight I have the open studio time at Somarts to print them. When I have energy to leave the apartment for something more stressful than lunch, I try to spend it on being with Della, because, though extremely exhausting, she is going through such an adorable phase right now that I hate to miss a moment of her cuteness.

Meg is visiting starting today, but staying at Robert's. Fortunately she is used to hanging out and being a lump with me, so I won't have to try to be more energetic than I feel. The fatigue can last for as long as two weeks after radiation treatment ends. Since I finish 5/15, I guess I can look forward to feeling normal again by Memorial Day if not before.

Put your tulips together...

I didn't have a new plate carved and ready for printing last night in time for the last session of "Luminous Linocut", as the class is called, so I used the studio time to do viscosity prints of my existing plates. This is the parrot tulip I carved on the first night of class. I'm going to miss the weekly routine of the print studio. Being there is both stimulating and soothing. We bring snacks and music to share with each other and we help each other print (when you do double drops, someone has to lift your paper for you while you slip out the monotype plate inked with the solid color and replace it with your inked lino plate). Everyone is very courteous and methodical, so we don't get much in each others' way and we don't misplace tools, don't create unnecessary messes, etc. Then we do cleanup together, which can take up to 30 minutes. Then, my favorite part, we sit down together at the clean work table and go through everything that was printed that night and discuss the various effects achieved and techniques used. It's extremely satisfying, on an artistic as well as on a social level.

My teacher, Katie, was very excited to have done shrinkydinks all Easter weekend with friends and family. (Last week I brought a bunch of the blank sheets to class for her.) She made me this tiny little representation of a linocut carving tool and my print from last week. :) I was very touched.


I'm well established in my new routine of daily radiation treatment. (6 down, 26 to go!) Using ZipCar has been very easy, and I haven't run into bad traffic. Unfortunately, I'm already feeling a little fatigued, and had to forgo some planned socializing over the weekend. The cold and rain we had here over the weekend certainly didn't help. It's a little easier to rouse myself now that we have sunshine again, and I've been trying to stick to my other new daily routine of lunching out and walking.

As it was Wednesday, I saw Dr. Gillis after my zap yesterday. Nothing much to report. She was unsurprised about the fatigue. My skin is normal so far, but she said to expect some redness by the end of next week. I'm prepared with unguents of aloe and such. So far, the axillary mass has not started growing again.

If you're interested, this is the routine for radiation: The receptionist at the front desk buzzes me in, and I go to the men's dressing room and change into a gown and put my clothes (top half only) into a locker. Then I sit and wait for a few minutes until one of my radiation therapists (either Ann or Barbette) comes and gets me and takes me to "Tahoe", as my particular radiation machine is called. Tahoe lives in its own huge room, with an l-shaped hallway and thick doors between it and the control room area where Barbette and Ann make it do its thing. I sit down on Tahoe's platform, untie my gown and lie down on the little sheet covered form they've arranged for me to maintain my position during the treatment. (If I were standing, it would look like I had my hand on my hip.) Either Ann or Barbette pulls my gown down below my waist and then they both use a light grid emitted by Tahoe over my torso to line me up, using those little tattoos I got. They tug on the sheet I'm lying on, tell me to relax my shoulders, say things like "And there I'm at 91" and "91 check" to each other. When they're happy with my position, they disappear down the hallway, and I hear the thick door close, and then Tahoe starts to whir and click and twirl, letting out with a sustained beep every so often as it zaps me. It positions itself at different degrees around my body for a series of 7 beeped zaps, and then it stops making noise and stops moving and Ann and Barbette come back and help me sit up and tie my gown back up for me, and one of them walks me back to the men's dressing room. On my best day so far, I was in and out in just about 10 minutes.

Lunches so far this week:
Starbelly - crab salad (duh)
Chilango - duck flautas and a surprisingly complementary merlot
Monk's Kettle - really good burger and fries and a nice bitter Rye IPA

ZAP!

Radiation treatments have begun! According to my appointment slip, they were just supposed to do a verification x-ray today, but it turned out they were starting treatment as well. I am scheduled for a total of 32 treatments, ending on Friday, May 14th.

Tomorrow and most of next week, my appointments are all either 8:15 or 8:30 (!!!!). After that, it's 9:00 every day. So much for my requested window of 10-12. I may have to deal with some rush hour traffic, but it's such a short leg of the freeway, that I doubt it will delay me much.

I have already made my ZipCar reservations for each of my treatments. I'll be driving the same car (a Scion TC) every time.

The print in the photo is my latest exercise for my linoleum printing class. One more class session next week, and then an open studio session on 4/21 and I'm done for awhile. I didn't sign up for the next block of six class sessions, since I don't know whether I'm going to be fatigued or not from radiation. But I definitely want to do a lot more in this medium. And I'd definitely like to work some more with Katie Gilmartin. She's a great teacher.