Finally, I am scheduled to start radiation therapy. It’s 5 weeks, every day Monday through Friday, with weekends off. I start Monday morning.

I’m excited to get this started, and done.

It will be interesting to see what it’s like. The major side effects are fatigue, skin irritation (like a sunburn!), and soreness. But they’ve said it takes a while for these effects to start happening. And I should be able to drive myself to the appointments unless I start getting too fatigued. And I should try to stay active because exercise helps counteract the fatigue. I have people who will help with rides if I need them.

They also say the effects can last for several months after you’re done.

The schedule will not impact my work too much. I’ll just flex my schedule a little to make up for the time. The appointments themselves are not long – maybe 15 minutes. But the drive takes a while since I have to come from West Seattle, what with the high rise bridge being out.

I’ve also talked to my boss about taking some vacation days during the radiation treatments – I’m getting close to the maximum vacation balance and I need to start taking it.

I’ve made a neat little tracking spreadsheet in Excel so I can cross off the days. Because I like doing things in Excel, and I like crossing things off.