My name is Vicky. I live in Colorado. I'm 43 and a divorced mother of two. I'm a medical transcriptionist, and a writer. Less than two weeks ago I was diagnosed with colon cancer. I don't smoke, drink, or do drugs, and I don't have a family history of colon cancer. Writing is my way of dealing with and processing what I'm going through. This blog is a way for me to do that for myself, my family, and anyone else who might benefit from it.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

25th DAY OF RADIATION

Wednesday October 29, 2014

Today was my last day of the regular radiation treatments, and tomorrow would start three days of coned-down treatments.  Boosters.  That means they'd be targeting a smaller area more specifically the last three days of treatment.

It went by fast today.  I fell asleep.  I usually do fall asleep during the treatment even though it's very uncomfortable.  But I've been so tired lately mostly from not getting a full night's sleep anymore.  Lately I've been up more than usual throughout the night.  Usually it's to pee, but lately my bowels have been irritated and making me have frequent bowel movements.  Over the weekend I had diarrhea first thing in the morning Saturday and going on until the afternoon.  Then I was completely back to normal.  I've also been passing a lot more mucus than normal.

My bloody-pus balls have morphed into dark red stringy mucus blobs.  It looks different than before.  It looks really weird.  If you've read my entire blog you know I overshare and get very detailed.  So listen, this isn't pleasant but I had to do it to find out.  One of these enormous mucus-passing episodes looked so odd and gross I thought for a second I may have passed a large quantity of parasitic worms.  I'm not being sarcastic here!  Really, I mean it.  I was so concerned at the odd appearance and sudden change in my "bloody pus balls" that I'd been used to, that I had no choice but to reach into the toilet bowl with my hand and scoop out all the material to see what in the heck it really was.  I placed it onto a dry washcloth.  It was nothing but stringy-looking mucus.  Just like a huge pile of the grossest looking snot you have ever seen.  I know, that's gross.  But hey, at least it wasn't really parasitic worms.  (I decided not to try and take a photo of it.  That's too gross.  My advice is that if you have weird stuff coming out, just call and make an appointment!  Don't assume it's normal).  Yes, I threw the washcloth away.

The Phenazopyridine really does make you pee orange, like Kool-Aid orange.  So far it's not really helping with the pain and discomfort.  It might take a couple days.  I've been having some mild pain in my tail-bone area on the inside, but it doesn't last long.  Sometimes I get cramps at night when I lay on my side in bed.  But other than that I feel fine.

Today the nurse told me that now that I'm nearly done with the radiation, I'll probably start feeling more fatigued in the next few weeks because of the build-up of radiation in my body.  The pain should be lessening though.  She also said my labs looked very good.  They had been a little low but have now come up almost to normal.  So that was good to hear.  Oh, and I was told I should expect to see even more mucus-passing in the weeks to come.  Yippie! (Not).

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