From Alison

Alison posted this in a comment on the Pixie Pix post, so I moved it to the main page:

Hi all. My first time trying to post on my own. We'll see how it goes.

Even though I figured I'd be posting cheerier stuff on my blog, I kind of needed to just say what was on my mind.

Rough day. My treatment plan has me going in for radiation five days/week and for lab draws weekly. This was one of my lab draw days and all I can say is I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life (and I've been scared a lot lately) when the results came back with critical potassium values that were terrifyingly high, to say the least. Thanks to Kirk for insisting we get the nurse practitioner to re-draw and re-run the lab or I'd be going through a nasty treatment that could easily have had adverse medical effects on me. This isn't the first problem we've had with the medical oversight of my oncology treatment and it's a little worrisome, to say the least, to have so little confidence in my oncology medical practitioner. Thankfully, the radiation team has my full confidence, and we'll get the oncology part of it figured out soon, I'm sure.

(Once we got the labs re-drawn, the results were all good and within the parameters the docs hope for so. Had it not been for the lab result fiasco, this would have been a good day.)

Radiation itself is no problem: they put a fitted mask over my face and lock it in and zap me 12 times in 12 different places. I don't get claustrophobic so it's no problem although since I'm starting to get moonfaced from the steroids, it's getting tighter every day. The chemo has a definite tendency to nauseate and to cause heartburn but that can all be managed with meds so bring it on. This tumor is going DOWN.

Kirk and I are about to sit down to a quiet dinner and a DVD and try to forget about chemo, radiation, doctors, and everything medical for the next few hours.

We love you. Thanks for keeping us so close in your hearts.