Radiation was by far, quite brutal. Midway through, I lost my voice and it didn't come back for five weeks. I was exhausted and I couldn't eat. Anything I ate came up quite promptly. I learned to have plenty of plastic bags on hand everywhere I went and both Rachel and Michael would hand them to me while I was driving if I even coughed one time. There were many times I had to pull the car over to deal with these side effects.
And then there is now. My neck is fully healed and I have complete range of motion in it. The tumor that caused the C4 to break remains "dead as a doornail," as does the cancer in the other cervical vertebrae as well. I am able to exercise daily and yesterday, I even "ran" a bit ... something that I was told a year ago that I would probably never be able to do again. "Your running days are over" are the exact words that were said.
What a difference a year makes! The entire medical team is pleased. I praise God that he gifted this team with brains, training, hard work, dedication, caring and perseverance to reach their goals of becoming medical professionals in order to help people like me. THEY are the heroes in this disease! All I do is follow their orders.
I'm living a daily miracle (to which my medical oncologist agrees!) and I couldn't be more glad.
Let us rejoice!