Radiant.

(Baseball and Mother's Day too)

By TEAM ANISSA

May 12^th, 2015

Radiation & Mother's Day

Anissa finally began radiation on April 28th. 28 treatments, every day, Monday through Friday for the next five weeks. As I type she’s already got 11 sessions under her belt. Along with the physical effects to the skin, the more systemic and major side effect will be the fatigue. We were told fatigue would start to show about two weeks into treatment and last two weeks or so beyond her last treatment. A friend who’s been through this described it as “You know that feeling you have after a day at the beach? It’s just like that only without the beach.” So for the next month we’re sticking close to home and we know exactly where Anissa will be every morning.

On a bright note, the noticeable changes post chemo from one week to the next are incredible to see. Peripheral Neuropathy still linger but it’s getting better. Nail beds are still weak, but growing stronger each day. The biggest change is the hair growth. Eyelashes have sprouted and seemingly growing like weeds. It won’t be long before mascara and shampoo return as a staples in the bathroom.

Mother’s Day arrived a day after we spent almost 10 hours on or around the baseball fields. After a full week of radiation, beginning Saturday with Bella’s championship game at 9am and ending with Jonathan’s playoff game at 4pm Anissa was feeling pretty beaten up. It didn’t help that they both lost. The first real sign of the fatigue was at hand. This extremely lazy day was kicked off with breakfast in bed prepared solely by Isabella.