"All for one and one for all..."

Hola!

Today I finally gave in and switched to the new Blogger system. Actually, I had no choice in the matter. It wouldn't let me post until I switched and signed up for a Google account. Good thing it was free, or I would not have been happy in the least. I guess there are supposed to be tons of cool new features, but I really haven't noticed any of them. The only thing that looks different to me is some of the layout when you sign in.

This last weekend was one of the best weekends I have had in a while. I went up to St. Paul and stayed at a hotel with some of my friends. It was awesome. Friday I went to the Mall of America with Ann and had a fabulous time shopping. Then on Saturday Ann, Connor, and I went on a mini road trip and kidnapped Laura and Jaselyn from Northwestern and St. Ben's University. We got back to our hotel room, ordered pizza, went swimming, and visited until the wee hours of the morning. I had a blast and must say I was reluctant to go home on Sunday. Hopefully I'll see everyone again during their spring breaks and we can plan something fun then.

Okay, now I must tell you the story of "The Radiation-Therapy Marks and the Swimming Pool." Dun-dun-dunnn!! =P

It all started with my trip to St. Paul. I decided not to pack my swimming suit so I would not be tempted to go swimming when I got to the hotel. I told myself I would be strong of will and resist temptation. Then Friday evening, Ann made the suggestion that we could roll up our pant-legs and sit with our legs in the hot tub. This was a splendid idea seeing as Minnesota is currently suffering from freezing temperatures and toes have the tendency to reflect said weather. So we rolled up our jeans and dangled our legs in the hot tub. At first this was satisfactory since the hot tub was, as its name states, very hot. But then my subconscious started to whisper to me, "Get in the water. Who cares about losing the radiation marks...?" At first I refused to listen, but I soon found myself hunched over and walking around the edge of the hot tub with my legs and arms trailing in the water like a crazy person. By this time my subconscious was screaming at me to sit in the hot tub, but I made it through the night without fulling submerging myself in chlorine-treated water and completely ruining my jeans. Saturday rolled around and now Jaselyn and Laura were in our company. At the hotel, the suggestion was made again about dangling our legs in the hot tub. My subconscious started nagging at me and I began to believe what it said: "It's okay to get in the water...The radiation people will never know that it was swimming that made the marks disappear...It only takes ten minutes to re-mark anyways...Start looking for sacrificial clothes to go swimming in...!" And then I snapped. I told everyone I was going swimming. I layered medical tape over my radiation marks and frantically started searching my bags for something to wear in the swimming pool. Everyone joined me in the search since Ann was the only one who had brought an actual swimsuit. The end result was all of us jumping into the swimming pool with a mix-match of clothing that we had lent to each other. We had tons of fun soaking in the hot tub and swimming in the pool, especially since we had it all to ourselves.


Ann, Connor, Jase, me, and Laura ready to go swimming.

Like I said before, Sunday I came home. I peeled off the layers of tape I had put over my radiation marks since having so much tape made my legs itch. Luckily, the multiple layers of tape had preserved the ink that had soaked into the first layer of tape. Getting the tape wet had caused the ink to bleed onto my skin, so when I took the tape off there were still faint marks on my leg. Then, I did the unthinkable: I re-traced the radiation marks with a Sharpie marker. They had told me not to. They had thought me too incompetent to do it. But I did it anyways. And guess what? They didn't even say anything about it when I had my first treatment yesterday! They actually said the marks looked good!! It's a dang good thing I went swimming this weekend or I would have been fuming with regret. That just goes to prove that if you ever get the itch to go swimming, you should just do it. Wow, that sounds like a Nike commercial...

I guess you might be interested in the actual process of my first radiation treatment. Well, it went like this: I got there, checked in, waited, changed into a gown, laid on a hard table, had my marks lined-up with lasers, got an X-ray, the radiation machine buzzed and zapped me for about a minute from above, I felt nothing- it was just like having an X-ray, the radiation machine rotated to go underneath me, I got zapped from underneath for another fraction of a minute, had another X-ray, and then I was done. The whole thing took less than ten minutes and was completely pain free. I repeat this whole procedure everyday this week; the only difference being that I won't have X-rays done daily, so the process will take about five minutes instead of ten. It almost feels like a waste of time since it's so short, but whatever. I guess it's going to help a bit, so I'll go along with it.

As you have probably noticed, there is a unique banner at the top of my blog. Though it looks like it could be an ad for an upcoming movie, it is actually for the book that is being published by my high school drama director, Mr. Little. I had mentioned before that his book was scheduled to be released June or July, but now it's scheduled to be in stores this spring. I hope everyone will take a minute of their time to visit Mr. Little's website to learn more about his book. All you have to do is click on the banner and it will route you to his page.

Well, I have to go eat lunch and get ready for treatment. That's really all the news I have anyways.

Until another day,
Cheryl