So once again, I wound up flashing a strange man. Well, okay, he wasn't strange -- he was just a stranger. I met the doctor covering for my radiation onco and told him about my fun fun symptoms. Then I got to take off my shirt. Sigh.
You'd think I'd get used to it, but no. And it feels more awkward when I have to strip in front of an unknown man, as opposed to an unfamiliar woman. At least I don't think I need to go through that again, since I have only one, maybe two more visits with this team before I go back to my regular surgeon for my last post-surgical follow up visit (which I put off till November, since the radiation treatment is still not done) -- he's a man, but at least he's someone I know.
Wanna know what the new doctor said when I asked him if there was anything I could do to minimize the itching and freakish skin conditions? He said, basically nothing will help except stopping radiation. In other words, just bite the bullet, grit my teeth, and wait for it to be over.
The only other option would be to try different lotions besides hydrocortisone -- so I used a $3 CVS coupon to by some Benadryl lotion and some Aveeno calamine lotion. I also bought some Johnson's (tear free) baby wash on the theory that if it's gentle enough for babies, I could use it and not irritate my skin.
On to more pleasant topics, like food (of course). While visiting my mom last night, I asked her how she made oxtail soup, and came home and put it into effect this evening. My only substitutions were (a) throwing in chopped grape tomatoes since I had way too many of those and not enough regular tomatoes, and (b) using organic celery instead of Chinese cabbage since I despise Chinese cabbage (a/k/a Napa cabbage).
The soup was a success! After a few hours on the stove, the apartment smelled like Mom's apartment when she makes oxtail soup, and it was a tasty dinner -- a tasty solo dinner, since my sweetie is suffering from a cold (part of the reason I made the soup) and decided to stay home. tonight and come over for lunch instead. Yep, we're the high energy twins this weekend.
It seems a shame that I don't have a community garden's compost pile to contribute my vegetable trimmings to, but I found a recipe for celery leaves which I will use tomorrow. Since my mom pointed out that Chinese people eat the leaves while Americans eat the stalks (ironic, no?) I figured the leafy bits are edible and am looking forward to trying them. They certainly smell yummy.
The organic celery, Japanese turnips, and Honeycrisp apples all came home with me from the Union Square Greenmarket, since that's in between mom's place and mine (but then what isn't?) after a brief detour to her local supermarket where I read her the specials in this week's circular. Since they had some insanely cheap sales on things like Lean Cuisine and canned tuna, between that and the greenmarket, I bought enough stuff to bend me over like Quasimodo. Maybe that's why I was so tired all afternoon (or it could just be 5 weeks of radiation).
It's a good thing I switched to the Boston Avon Walk in May 2010, since I could barely stay awake tonight past 6pm. The NYC walk is this weekend, so you can see how that wouldn't have worked out too well.
And I leave you (as I started this post) with photos of Peebler's Point in Central Park, named after Charles Peebler, the man who brought you the memorable Got Milk and Pork, The Other White Meat ad campaigns. I took these photos last Sunday when my sweetie and I went for an hour 45 minute walk.
You'd think I'd get used to it, but no. And it feels more awkward when I have to strip in front of an unknown man, as opposed to an unfamiliar woman. At least I don't think I need to go through that again, since I have only one, maybe two more visits with this team before I go back to my regular surgeon for my last post-surgical follow up visit (which I put off till November, since the radiation treatment is still not done) -- he's a man, but at least he's someone I know.
Wanna know what the new doctor said when I asked him if there was anything I could do to minimize the itching and freakish skin conditions? He said, basically nothing will help except stopping radiation. In other words, just bite the bullet, grit my teeth, and wait for it to be over.The only other option would be to try different lotions besides hydrocortisone -- so I used a $3 CVS coupon to by some Benadryl lotion and some Aveeno calamine lotion. I also bought some Johnson's (tear free) baby wash on the theory that if it's gentle enough for babies, I could use it and not irritate my skin.
On to more pleasant topics, like food (of course). While visiting my mom last night, I asked her how she made oxtail soup, and came home and put it into effect this evening. My only substitutions were (a) throwing in chopped grape tomatoes since I had way too many of those and not enough regular tomatoes, and (b) using organic celery instead of Chinese cabbage since I despise Chinese cabbage (a/k/a Napa cabbage).
The soup was a success! After a few hours on the stove, the apartment smelled like Mom's apartment when she makes oxtail soup, and it was a tasty dinner -- a tasty solo dinner, since my sweetie is suffering from a cold (part of the reason I made the soup) and decided to stay home. tonight and come over for lunch instead. Yep, we're the high energy twins this weekend.
It seems a shame that I don't have a community garden's compost pile to contribute my vegetable trimmings to, but I found a recipe for celery leaves which I will use tomorrow. Since my mom pointed out that Chinese people eat the leaves while Americans eat the stalks (ironic, no?) I figured the leafy bits are edible and am looking forward to trying them. They certainly smell yummy.
The organic celery, Japanese turnips, and Honeycrisp apples all came home with me from the Union Square Greenmarket, since that's in between mom's place and mine (but then what isn't?) after a brief detour to her local supermarket where I read her the specials in this week's circular. Since they had some insanely cheap sales on things like Lean Cuisine and canned tuna, between that and the greenmarket, I bought enough stuff to bend me over like Quasimodo. Maybe that's why I was so tired all afternoon (or it could just be 5 weeks of radiation).
It's a good thing I switched to the Boston Avon Walk in May 2010, since I could barely stay awake tonight past 6pm. The NYC walk is this weekend, so you can see how that wouldn't have worked out too well.
And I leave you (as I started this post) with photos of Peebler's Point in Central Park, named after Charles Peebler, the man who brought you the memorable Got Milk and Pork, The Other White Meat ad campaigns. I took these photos last Sunday when my sweetie and I went for an hour 45 minute walk.
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