But wait…wasn’t radiation supposed to end today?

Why yes, yes it was.  It even still says so on my online account.

But my doctor changed my program from 25 days to 28 days and no one told me until last week.

You should have seen me with the nurse that day.

She’s all “So your last day is November 6th.”

And I smile and confidently say, “No it’s not.  I’m done on November 1st.”

And she disagrees with me and shows me that the schedule was changed early on.

“No, no, no.” I say, “On my first day of treatment they gave me the schedule and said it was to be my bible.  And the last day is November 1st.”

The nurse looks at me sympathetically and says that whoever gave me that schedule was mistaken.

“Well, that person is really mean then.” I said, “and this is unbelievable”.

She apologized profusely.

Then my doctor came in and asked how I was doing and I told him I was really angry at the moment and explained why.

And then he explained that after my simulation and CAT scan that I had “a lot of healthy tissue” and he decided to give me a lower dose spread over 28 days instead of 25.  He apologized for not letting me know.

W….T……F?!!!!!!!!!!!

I kept it together in the office.  Although you know how normally, you as the patient wait for the doctor to get up and leave or dismiss you?  Yeah.  That didn’t happen.

At some point, I stood up and said, “Are we done here?” and I left.

My husband was in the waiting room.  I told him about the extension and how no one had bothered to tell me.  I still kept it together.  But when we got to the car I cried.  I sobbed.  I yelled that I hated all of this and that I hated every one of THEM and that it took a certain kind of sicko to do this to a person.

Am I really mad at my doctor?

Well, yes and no.  I know he is doing his job and there was obviously a communication breakdown.  I don’t think it was intentional.

But people, I have been running a six month marathon of pain and illness brought on by treatment and while the finish line was in my sights, it feels like the “team” picked up the FINISH banner and moved it back on me by three days.

And that SUCKS.

I remember my first full marathon.  It was the Nike Women’s Marathon in SF.  My family met me at my last mile and they ran with me.  My youngest was in a stroller.  My eldest was six and so happy to run with his momma.  But all I could see was that finish line ahead. It felt like that last mile would never end.  And let me tell you, if at the last second, they had moved it back three more miles, I think I would have screamed bloody murder!

And this is what just happened to me only instead of 26.2 miles, it’s been over six months.  I am just beside myself.

I am still miffed by this turn of events and today, the day I was supposed to be done with nauseating radiation was a bitter one for me.

Very bitter.

And I am tired.  So tired.  Unbelievably tired.  It’s not just physical (though that would be enough) it is emotional as well.  I am tired.

I am not the only one.  There is a note of irritability throughout our household this week.  It was supposed to be over today and it is not.  All of us are so over this treatment phase.  We need a break.  We need a vacation.

And everyone else is tired of this too.  If I weren’t so tired, I might feel a little lonely.  But then I get a card or a note or someone drops by with a gift or a kind word.  How can I be lonely?

This is all just really hard and we are just exhausted.  Tired of cancer.  Tired of fighting.  Tired of feeling sick.  Tired of wondering if it’s even going to work.  Tired of feeling like I need to be some kind of Pollyanna when I am anything but that.  This whole thing just stinks.

And the wort part is that there are still three days left.