Radiation Begins

Radiation began today; treatment 1 of 33. You hear a buzzing noise when you're getting zapped, but you don't feel anything (although I SWEAR I could feel static electricity or something the first time.) Maybe it was my hair follicles boiling (or, like I told Mike, the Senior Therapist, my CELLS frying.)

The white marks are my "permanent" marks now. The area within the black outline is the area being irradiated. I can remove that; I asked them to mark it for me so I could see the actual area that I need to put the medicine on, and so I could show everyone via this blog what was happening.


The first visit took longer than any others will, because after my first treatment, Ann (the nurse practictioner) and Dr. Godette both talked to me for a while.

Bubba, Aida and the girls went down to Destin for a little vacation at the beach instead of heading back to New Orleans just to sit in the traffic again since people are only being allowed to come back just now. They will go back on Saturday. Mom and Dad evacuated to Aunt Jan's in Ocean Springs, MS, and they'll go back tomorrow or Friday.

Simulation Day

Here's what my marks looked like on September 2, 2008, the day after Labor Day, when I had the final part of my simulation. They take a bunch of X-rays and position you on the table to make sure everything lines up.








Bubba and Aida, Allie and Amie, Vicki, the two birds and all their valuables arrived yesterday afternoon after they spending the night in Birmingham, Alabama since it took them 17 hours to get just that far from New Orleans in the evacuation traffic for Hurricane Gustav.

Bill and I both feverishly researched hotels on the internet for at LEAST three hours straight, and the only one we could find at all that still had room was in Birmingham. There was nothing at all in Mississippi along Hwy 59/20, the route they decided to take, and it took them FOREVER just to get past Meridian. Had they attempted to get all the way to Atlanta, they wouldn't have arrived until 5 a.m. and would have been on the road for ~21 hours straight.



They said the hotel was PACKED with people and all their pets and valuables. Bill had called the hotel about an hour after we made the reservation and pretended he was Bubba calling, wondering if they might be turned away since pets weren't allowed and nothing else was available. The hotel was already sold out by then, but they verified that they WERE holding a reservation for him, and yes, Vicki (their Dalmatian) would be OK.

I cried on Sunday night, overwhelmed that I would have a house full of people and animals in the same week radiation was starting and our first choir practice of the season was happening, when I had absolutely no time or energy to prepare myself for all of this. It was great to see the family but since my surgery, I had only had "close to normal" energy levels for maybe two days before they arrived, and I've been too exhausted to think straight, much less get any work done to prepare for the fall. But all was fine. I kept Sybil locked up in the bedroom and master bath the entire time they were here so Vicki could have run of the house, and the kids are really well behaved. The timing was just really stressful, though.

Hurricane Gustav....will it be Katrina Part 2? Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us!

Bubba called me the other day to see if he, Aida, Allie, Amie and their Dalmatian, Vicki could evacuate to my house if Gustav hits New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina hit exactly 3 years ago (August 29, 2005) and right now it looks like Gustav's headed straight to LA. Mom said the levees are already leaking, and the Times-Picayune front page shows that much of the work is incomplete. I read an article a few days ago that said the pipes near the City Park pumping station are rotted through. It has flooded there every time it rained since I was a little kid, and they still haven't fixed it! Unbelievable.

So here we go again. Mom and Dad will be going to Val's house near Dallas if there's a mandatory evacuation. The second half of my radiation simulation is Tuesday, and I begin radiation on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. My regular appointment time will be 9:30 a.m. every day starting on Thursday, Sept. 6 (when adult choir practices resume.) Wow, it'll be a busy week!

I've attached some pictures from my January 2006 visit to New Orleans, 5 months after Hurricane Katrina. Some, like Bubba's FEMA trailer and the high water lines and spray-painted rescue grids like Val is showing at her old duplex were typical of things you'd see all around the city.

Others were things I NEVER saw on TV, but was so prevalant across the Gulf Coast (and has been in every disaster) that it defies any rational explanation. Statues of Jesus, Mary and other saints often stayed intact, but the churches/houses they stood in front of and everything around them had been destroyed. Why? Our Lady of Prompt Succor is the Patroness of the state of Louisiana, the Archdiocese of (and the city of) New Orleans. Click the link for more info on the background of how that evolved. Every year during hurricane season, Catholic churches across the Gulf Coast always include a petition in the Prayer of the Faithful invoking her intercession to protect the city from harm. The city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast needs her help again to avoid Katrina Part 2.

Our Lady of Prompt Succor,
Hasten to help Us!