Recovery

So my treatments are finally all over. I finished my radiation treatments a couple of months ago. I had underestimated the difficulty of radiation. I had thought that you just go for a while and maybe you'll get a sun burn. No such luck. You have to go everyday (except weekends and holidays) for a month (for me) and they zap you while you lye under this huge machine. It doesn't take very long, but it's annoying having to go in to the hospital every day. Thankfully my mom and mother-in-law were able to babysit. The treatments didn't bother me until after they were all over. About a week after everything finished, my skin started turning black and splitting open. Eventually it turned to hard scales and fell off, leaving tender baby skin underneath. It took about a month to get back to "normal". Unfortunately though, the radiation damages your lung, muscles and should joint too, but you don't see it. I should have been more diligent about doing my physiotherapy stretches because now my shoulder and chest muscles are tight and sore...it's been hard to stretch them out now but I'm making progress. I'm trying to get back to normal in regards to my Kung-Fu, but it's been difficult. In addition to the injuries, my right arm has begun to swell if I do to much with it so I have to be careful (lymphadema). On the good side, this is good motivation to start practicing things with my left hand. That is something I've never focused on. I also plan on becoming an excellent kicker!

On a sadder note, our cat Ginger was run over a while back. She was pretty awesome. She used to come with me for walks in the park and was quite a character! She was absolutely fearless and lived every moment to the fullest. She was constantly in the moment. We'll miss you Gingy!