Day 25

• All over with, Folks! Wasn’t God good!!
• Nam shared job info with his favorite valet guys. I hope it works out for them!
• In the waiting room, I gave little cards with notes of encouragement to patients I’ve prayed for the whole time – they weren’t there, so I gave them to the receptionist. I gave one to her, too. She’s so kind!
• I had a whole new RT today named Haley – never met her before, but she was very nice.
• Even though I went pee before therapy, about halfway through, I had to go again. Yikes! I tried waving my hand around (though I have to keep it down by my side so it doesn’t get radiated), but she never saw it. I thought my bladder was going to explode – plus, it gets really painful with my cerclage. So, once she came in and took my mask off, I had to bolt to the bathroom in just my socks!
• Then, I saw Stella. She told me that was it, but I said I wanted to ask Dr. T a few last questions – so over to the Moncrief Building I went. I gave a thank you card to the receptionists at the front desk, too, because they are so wonderful.
• They took just my vitals today – no nursing assessment. Good.
• Then I had to wait forever. After 40 minutes, I went out and asked if Dr. T even knew I was waiting for him. They said they didn’t know, but they’d page him. Reall
• Awhile later, Dr. T came in. He congratulated me on being done. That was nice. He seemed very enthusiastic for me.
• I got to ask him my questions. A couple of important things:

1. I need follow up every 3 months for the first year and a half. Then it goes down to 6 months and then yearly after 3 years. I must have follow up for at least 10 years, though they’d like to follow me forever. (I think that’s for them, though, not for me)
2. He does not want me moving overseas (like, no mission work) until my follow ups are spaced out yearly. And, then, I must come back to the U.S. for my follow-ups. He said having the Chinese doctors evaluate me would be like comparing apples and oranges. I thought that was pretty interesting.
3. He said we can start trying to conceive in March! Woo Hoo! He’s not basing it on any study, but just intuition. If there was catastrophic damage to my eggs from scatter radiation, then too bad, so sad. No babies. If there was just subtle damage, then there is the possibility that the eggs could repair themselves. He said all of that is “theoretical” but just wait a couple of months.

• Then, gave Dr. T a thank you card and that’s it!
• Follow up with my neuro opthamologist Dr. McHenry every month and I’ll see Dr. T in 3 months for an MRI.
• He said he doesn’t think I’m a “ticking time bomb” and the goal of his treatment was to stop Burt from growing and preserve my right eye’s vision and he thinks we’ve done it and I don’t have to deal with this anymore the rest of my life.
• To see my concluding thoughts, please read “Final Reflections: Radiation”

My mask – RETIRED!