Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Re-Positioning

Yesterday, two votes in the State of Colorado recalled two of our State Senators (for voting in favor of gun legislation).  First time in the State's 100+ year history. 

Yesterday, as those of you who read this blog know, I spent an hour getting a CT scan to prepare my arm for radiation therapy.  Today I got recalled.  Apparently, the radiation oncologist (MD) was not satisfied with the position of my arm on the CT scan.

So, tomorrow am, I have to go for a do-over. Notwithstanding that the doc had the techs redo my position yesterday (after they had already had to redo it themselves because on my way into the CT scan -- which is like a tunnel -- the edge of the special pillow that is inflated/deflated to hold my arm in position, caught on the machine and moved).  So it's a do-over of a do-over. 

As Bill said, they are sweating the details, and we should be glad.  Hooray.

I was at a state commission meeting this am -- my voice only caught once when I had to talk about my arm.  And, another colleague commented on the phone this afternoon that I sounded better than I did two weeks ago.  Nice to know.  The conversation with Cyd (personal trainer who's getting me strong for surgery) yesterday, when she talked about the last post-radiation client she had who ran into a wall playing squash and shattered the bone in her shoulder that had been irradiated was jarring, but I'm learning how to be cheery. 

Lots of people get through radiation and don't break bones afterwards.  5 out of 6 people w/ soft tissue sarcoma of the extremity don't end up with amputation.  Learning to focus on the positive is like seeing the forest not the trees.  Or like seeing the spaces between the trees, not the trees when you're mountain biking or glade skiing.  Avoiding a crash is a lot about where you don't look.

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