The Book Babe Speaks

My final radiation treatment is over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay me for doing something that millions of other women have done. Yay for all the women who have completed treatment and are survivors! We all rock, who is better than us? No-one that’s who!

I still have numerous doctors appts and such but the really hard part is all over. I really do deserve a pony… Tee hee hee!

I got a certificate of completion from the radiology girls. They were all so sweet. They made the annoyance of going in every day easier to deal with. Soon my energy levels will be back up, more yay.

My penultimate (one of my favorite words fyi) radiation treatment is over. Yay. My last one is on Monday. I am so happy about that. I see my surgeon again in November and then start the process of getting shiny, perky new girls. I have been having big feeling of uncertainty, I have been so consumed with being a patient this year, and had cancer on the brain since I found the lump over a year ago, that I am not sure what to do now. My future is a bit up in the air now. Kind of weird to have that feeling of uncertainty. Oh well, it won’t last forever.

I am still training for the 3-day. I have moments when I hurt so much that I feel like an old lady but I am having so much fun.

I finally joined a support group and wish that I had at the very beginning. I love my giant support system but none of them have been through this so it is nice talking to people who have had the same treatment as I. The lady in charge sends out a ton of emails about all kinds of informative stuff. One of which had info about something called Pink Light District sponsored or brought by the Arizona Institute for Breast Health. It sounds fabulous so I bought a pink light for my mom who is a survivor herself.

Any of you who have not read Ally Carter need to. She is awesome and her books are great! I have been a fan of hers ever since her first book in the Gallagher Girls series, I’d Tell You I Love You but Then I’d Have to Kill You, came out a few years ago. There are two more books in that series, hopefully there will be more! She has a new non-Gallagher title that comes out in Feb called Heist Society, it is so good! It is my new favorite. Her books are so much fun. I love them and I am sure that you will too. Not only does she write good books, but she also donated to the online auction. More evidence of her awesomeness.

More authors (other than the PBB authors)you should read because they rock:

Lisa McMann~ Author of Wake and Fade and would have been part of Project BookBabe but was on tour for Fade. Her books are kind of creepy but fabulous.

Robin Brande ~ Author of Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature and the upcoming Fat Cat out in the next few weeks. She also would have been part of PBB but was at a conference. If you visit her website, you can enter a contest to win Fat Cat. Do it, it is such an incredible story.

Barry Lyga ~ Author of a number of titles newest one being Goth Girl Rising. His short story Her Decade in my favorite thing he has done. Go to his website and read it.

Carol O’Connell~ One of the few adult authors I will drop everything to read. Her Kathy Mallory series is very well written and Kathy is one of the best characters I have ever read. She is slightly sociopathic, not in a Dexter kind of way, but that makes her all the more fascinating to read. The crimes she solves are often complicated and even though we often know who the perpetrator is from the very beginning, watching Kathy solve them and learning more about her past is what originally kept me coming back. Now, I am so attached to Kathy that it does not matter that some of her later titles are not as good as the first few, I read them all anyway.

Robin McKinley~ One of the only authors I am intimidated to meet, but I totally want to anyway. Everything by her is good. My two favorites are Deerskin and Dragonhaven. They are both so incredibly well written. I could go on about them for hours but I won’t so you can go read them! Her latest title, Chalice, is my third favorite. It is about bees, love and honey. It is fantasy for those who don’t like fantasy and the love story is so understated that it is almost not there which makes it all the more lovely. Sigh, her books are so good.

Radiation is still going pretty good. As long as I ignore the super bad sunburn like  pain that is… I did talk to the radiologist yesterday and he changed my treatment up a bit so the painful spot can heal. I am very happy, the pain was starting to keep me up at night. If you want to know what the pain was like, go out and get a sunburn,  stay out in the sun for about 8 hours. Then do it five more times in a row. That’s what it feels like. But, I am getting the boost part of the treatment right now and then I will do the rest after the 5 boost treatments are over. The boost being a different type of radiation that is less penetrating and aimed only at my scar. I am very happy that I get to heal.

My training is going well, still enjoying the walking. I am meeting some great people and am really glad I made the decision to do this.

My energy is getting better, not great but better than it was a month ago. I still get tired really easily but at least I am not tired all the time. I know the walking is helping with that and I am sure that as soon as the radiation is over, it will get even better.

For all the local pet lovers, I found (or rather my super awesome friend Claudia did) a truly wonderful indie pet store called Sunflower Pet Supply. The owner is super nice and knowledgeable about all things pet and the prices are comparable to the chains. They also carry a huge variety of more natural foods. And they have some adorable pet toys. I did not get Malky any as he already has too many toys…

Here is a link to some pictures of a quilt I received from  this fabulous group in Australia. A few months ago I was contacted by this adorable girl named Alissa saying that she was a part of a Twilight fan group called Twilight Australia. They heard about the event, from Stephenie’s website of course, and made me a quilt since they could not attend the event. Alissa along with 2 other girls were here a few weeks ago so I met up with them. The pictures do not do it justice. It is freaking gorgeous! Hopefully the pictures are readable…

It’s been a while since I posted and I realized that by not posting very often I get asked the same questions like a billion times so I had better stop slacking and post more if I want to avoid that scenario. And, since I don’t have the time to say the same thing a billion times, here is a new update. Not that I blame you all for wanting to know…

Radiation has been going well. Annoying that it is every day but still better than chemo. The fatigue part catches up with me more often than not. But instead of being tired all the time as with the chemo, I merely get tired easily. That being said, I have still been busy. Now that I am feeling better I am almost never home, I have been spending a lot of time out with friends or training for the 3 day. The latter takes up most of my evenings but I totally love it. Last night I did a 5 mile and it started raining about halfway through. It was great! I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and so did the other girls that were with me.

Sci-fi looking machine that I keep hoping will give me super powers but so far I got nothing

So here is what the radiation machine looks like. The top part radiates, the thing on the right scans, not sure what it scans for. I don’t know what the arm on the left does. I should care but I don’t. It is freaking huge and probably costs more than I have made my entire life. That being said, it keeps breaking. Which means that, depending on what part stops working, treatments that are only supposed to take 2o minutes some times take 10 and sometimes take an hour. It is kind of funny actually how often it happens. Here is a typical treatment. in case you care. I lay on the table and the techs lift it up and in so I am in between the 3 arms. I have these little tattoos that they line up with some weird light that looks like green cross hairs. Then they leave the room and close the giant door that looks like it would hold back a wave of zombies. And then the machine rotates, scans and radiates according to the plan they set up for me. It is not painful, merely tedious. The tech ladies are super nice, just like every one at the clinic. I also really like my radiologist even though he is not-hot. Very sad.

I have been able to read more, here are some books that I am loving currently

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins ~ This was of course as incredible as I was hoping it would be. I loved Hunger Games but was a bit skeptical that this one would be as fabulous. Totally worth having in Hardcover.

Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum ~ After reading boring arc after boring arc, I finally came across this one. The generic plot  is a love story but it is incredibly well done, interesting and well written. A fantastic debut by a wonderfully talented writer. I highly recommend it.

Soulless by Gail Carriger ~ I had so much fun reading this book. It has been a while since I have read such a fun adult book. It is an amusing romp through a Victorian London where vampires and werewolves have “come out” so to speak. It is fairly predictable but because it is a ton of fun, it does not matter in the least. This one comes out in paperback at the end of the month and if you like the supernatural, you will enjoy this one.

I am currently reading a bunch of other stuff that all seems pretty good but we will see…