Radiation Graduate (AGAIN) - 12/30/2011

I thought I would blog quickly about being done with full brain radiation.  I sometimes forget that I post stuff on facebook but not everyone is on facebook.  I had my 10th (and final) radiation treatment yesterday afternoon and then Kurt and I went out to the Portside for a celebratory lunch.  I was given my mask to take home (pictures below) and had a great suggestion from a friend whose mother went through radiation treatments - have a MASK BURNING CEREMONY!  I will plan to do that at some point - not sure when yet but definitely will need to do it.  I'm not exactly sure why I'd want to keep it anyway.  As I've said about most of my radiation treatments (halo and mask), it reminds me more of the SAW movies than anything! 

I do want to say thank you to the wonderful workers in the radiation department at MGH!  They were very patient with me when I was EXTREMELY nervous about being under the mask and they answered all of my MANY questions.  My dad had me laughing because when I go in, they always say, "Jodi, please tell us your name and date of birth."  He suggested that I ask what they would do if I gave them the wrong name and date of birth ... so yesterday I asked them (AFTER I told them my name and date of birth of course).  They said that I'd be surprised to know that both Barrack Obama and Marilyn Monroe have been there for radiation.  (So, apparently there are either people who truly don't know who they are or are goofing around with them.)  Again, thank you to all of the wonderful people who take care of me when I have appointments!

The actual radiation treatment lasted @ 20 seconds on each side of my head.  Every day I would say a prayer when the treatments were going - I can only hope that those prayers produce the miracle that I was praying for!

Here are a couple of pictures of the mask that I had to wear for radiation:

This is my mask sitting on my kitchen table!

This is a picture of what radiation and the mask looks like on a flyer they gave me ...
much better than the picture that I took with it on to show my family (a picture I will not share)!

I'm looking forward to 2012 and hoping that it is a much healthier year!  I meet with my oncologist next week and will hopefully have a better idea of what treatment I will be taking part in.  I know it might not be easy as most chemo patients do get sick, lose their hair, etc.  I just hope that whatever I have to go through, I am able to have some relief from brain tumors and be here for a LONG time! 

I believe!