The first day of treatment

Angela had a busy day today. It began this morning at 8:30 with physical therapy at Morgan’s Physical Therapy that lasted until 10 a.m. Angela says the physical therapy went well and her therapist stimulated her muscles with electrodes. There isn’t a lot of movement in her left foot but there was some movement, and that is encouraging. Though she won’t be going to physical therapy tomorrow due to a scheduling conflict with her radiation treatments, she will be going through outpatient physical therapy Monday through Friday as she continues to work on regaining full use of her left arm and leg. Her movement and use of her left arm continues to show noticeable improvement and small signs that she is gaining use of her left leg and foot continues.

Today was also the day in which she began both her chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She is taking her chemotherapy orally seven days a week and her radiation treatments are taking place at Mary Bird Cancer Center in Baton Rouge daily from Monday through Friday. Angela’s radiation and chemo are following the protocol that was mapped out for her at Duke University last week. The treatments are scheduled to last six weeks with a total of approximately 30 radiation treatments during that time period, adjusting for holidays. Angela says the entire staff at Mary Bird has been incredible to work with and she is very pleased with the care she is receiving there.

The radiation got off to a rough start because she was nervous and scared but she made it through it. Though she took a Valium to calm her nerves, she says it didn’t kick in while she was there. However, this blogger can tell you that the Valium finally did kick in a few minutes after 5 p.m. as she was dictating her experiences today to me.

With Angela now sleeping, I don’t have a lot of first-hand information to add. However, she did tell me that the medical professionals say the first day is the longest and the hardest and Angela was wearing her radiation mask for 42 minutes today. In the future she says she’s told she’ll be wearing the mask about half that amount of time and though she was very anxious going into Mary Bird today, she now knows what to expect and is much more comfortable with the procedure.

“They say that about half the people freak out over the mask and one person refused to wear the mask and left without taking radiation,” Angela told me, adding, “I told them I have three small children to raise and there is no way I’m not going through these treatments.”

Angela wants to again thank everyone who is keeping up with her through this blog and she appreciates everyone who has taken the time to offer his or her messages of hope and prayer. She reads them daily, often re-reading old ones and she gains strength from them.