My wife is entering her last two weeks of radiation treatment. After that we can plan to do anything or to go anywhere we damn well want to because there will be no more regularly scheduled clinic appointments. We can just stay home, eat, watch TV and take naps any time we feel like it.
For her, the radiation treatment has been a walk in the park compared to the chemotherapy. For me, however, I don’t like seeing this huge red mark on her chest, like someone had taken a hot iron and pushed it down on her skin. I want to take her in my arms and hold her tight to make the pain go away, but I don’t dare because the extreme redness looks like it is tender to the touch.
However, my wife says it does not hurt. She has a prescribed ointment to rub on the redness three times a day. What she doesn’t like about it is that the salve feels very greasy and grainy. It also dissolves the black marks where the technicians align the X-ray machine on her body. They have to mark her back up every few days.
She has done her research on radiation treatment, as she has done on every other stage she has endured during this time, and found out the last two weeks of the radiation are when the skin becomes more sensitive and painful.
However, if she continues to use the salve three times a day, the irritation won’t be as bad. Her research showed that if the patient did not receive refills on the ointment because she/or he decided they didn’t need it, the pain would become worse.
That’s why she puts the salve on three times a day even if she is not experiencing discomfort and she doesn’t like the sensation it created on her skin. She’s all stocked up on ointment and ready for whatever happens.
We’re at the goal line.