As you recall, radiation was finished at the end of January and I was expecting to see some side effects. I did experience some nausea the day after my last rad treatment, however the hangover remedy that I have carefully honed over the last 35 years, finally employed for a non-self-inflicted purpose, worked wonders to quickly remedy this particular side effect!

February was a recovery month for my body to heal from fatigue, which was pretty much the only side effect that I experienced on a longer term basis. Thankfully this was the only side effect that really affected me during the month, because everything else was a bit of a, well, for lack of a better term, a shit show 🙂 This was mainly due to several emergency dental appointments, a trip to emerge for an issue with my vision and then some emergency optometry appointments. Thankfully my vision has returned fully (the vision in one eye was partially blurred for about 10 days) and the tooth issue is on the mend.

Despite all of this, I have started running again once a week (not very far and not very fast!) and I try to get out for walks on the days that I don’t run. Also, this past Friday, I started my return to work transition. I believe this is a really good thing, as something I discovered is that being home all day, without anything to occupy my mind or anyone to talk to throughout the day, is not good for my mental health.

While the last six weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster (and not the fun kind), there were still positive things that occurred. I received two special gifts, plus I was able to bring home the remaining cranes (recall the 1,000 paper cranes that the amazing Client Ops team made for me)… all of which will bring me some positive energy needed to keep up the battle over the coming months. I am keeping the acorn (thank you, Angela!) and the guardian angel (thank you, Auntie M!) with me at all times. The cranes are a little bulkier, so they will have to stay in my dining room 🙂

I also took the plunge of adding a new piece to my original Pink Ribbon tattoo. I decided to add the Grey Ribbon for brain cancer, along with my second date of diagnosis. To give you some perspective, the whole tattoo (located on my back) is about 1.5″ high and 2″ wide… so not really large as far as tattoos go… however, with me being squeamish, getting this little ribbon added did not come without some drama… halfway through the session, I, of course, became quite lightheaded and the team at the tattoo studio had to work pretty quickly to prevent me from completely passing out. After all the drama was over, I was able to convince the tattoo artist that I would be okay to finish up the tattoo… my angle was showing him an image of the injection that I’ve received in my stomach every month for the last five years… comparatively, my monthly injection is WAY worse than a tattoo needle… and in hindsight, I probably should have thought of that before we got started…

The other item of note recently is that a few days ago I had a full body bone scan completed (at the request of my oncologist from Princess Margaret)… this scan was looking for evidence of cancer in my bones…and I am incredibly happy to report that the scan came back as being “unremarkable”… which in this context is a GOOD thing!