I am going to be done with my treatment for Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2 days!  The radiation machine was broken on Monday, so I will have my very last radiation on Thursday.

As per the title of this article, I have some good and bad news.  Well, the bad isn't really bad yet.  It turns out that I have a cyst on my thyroid gland.  A doctor noticed it over a year ago when I had the ultrasound that diagnosed my lymphoma.  I just had another ultrasound last week and my doctor confirmed it.  I have to have a needle biopsy of the cyst to make sure it isn't cancerous.  My doctor says the chances are minimal (95% of thyroid cysts are non-cancerous and I have no symptoms) but we have to check to make sure.  I'm having the biopsy done on Thursday; I'm not too excited about the procedure. 

My good news (other than almost being done with radiation) is that I got into the graduate school program I applied for (even with my chemo GRE scores!)  I am going to get my masters in public health, specialize in epidemiology, and do cancer epidemiology which is using statistics to determine the causes of different cancers (in a nutshell).

So I will post the results of my thyroid biopsy later. 

Wouldn't you know that everything has been fine since last weekend?  Only when Curtis is here...
My throat is even feeling a lot better.  It isn't raw anymore, I just can't take really big bites. 
I had a chest x-ray on Monday that came out clear so I guess everything is ok.  Just a one-time thing, hopefully.  Well, 1 week from today I will be totally done with all treatments!!  Hooray!! 

Everyone who told me that radiation would be a "walk in the park compared to chemo" owes me a candy bar (or something equally yummy).  I am not having an easy time with radation- its crappiness began earlier this week.
The swallowing pain got worse all week and would be particularly painful right after treatment.  I began getting a rash on Monday- my docs thought it was an allergic reaction, so they gave me zyertec (allergy medicine).  Not only has it not gone away,  but it is spreading.  But the worst of the worst came on Friday. 
I was feeling pretty aweful after my radiation on Friday, but Curtis was visiting so I was trying my best to play it off like I was doing ok.  After we had lunch I was totally drained so I decided to take a nap while he watched TV.  Once I woke from my nap I noticed it was kind of painful to take a deep breath.  Thinking it had something to do with my sore esophagus, I ignored it.  Long story short, by 8PM I thought my chest was going to explode.  Even taking a substancial breath made my chest ache and moving (especial going from sitting up to laying down) sent shooting pains through my chest.  Meanwhile I am searching the internet and the only thing I can find is that chest pain is an "uncommon side effect of radiation."  I'm on the verge of going to the ER, but decide to try to call my radiation oncologist first.  I call his nighttime number and get the methodist hospital switchboard.  They page him.  He doens't call.  I try to call the office and the message says to call the switchboard and ask to page the radiation oncologist on-call for the night.  That guy calls back and I tell him how I am feeling.  He says that it sounds like the lining of my lungs has swollen due to the radiation and is rubbing on my ribcage and that is why it hurts to take a deep breath.  He says to take some asprin (anti-inflammatory) and if it gets to where I'm short of breath I should go to the ER.
So I get and bed and cry from pain for about 30 minutes until I fall asleep.  The next day it still hurts, but not as badly.  Today it is even better, but still uncomfortable to take a deep breath. 
I still have 8 radiations left, but I can't deal with that kind of pain for the next week and a half.  At least this time I got a 2 day break afterwards, but if it happens on Monday I wont.  I am going to talk to my doctor on Monday; I saw a lot of forum posts where people said they had a bad response to radiation so their doctor ended it early or they didn't get any at all.  I dont WANT to end it early because I don't want the cancer to come back, but I really don't want to have lung damage as a result of this.  I also want this rash to go away...

I have been neglecting my blog, how sad. 
My scans turned out really good.  There was a sign of only minimal englargement of the mass in my chest (so minimal that my doctor said it was probably only different because of the way they spliced the images).  I began radiation to my chest last Tuesday, so as of today I have had 7 treatments.  I will have 20 total (so they say, but I know how that goes...)
I am not having any side effects yet except a little bit of disscomfort when I swallow food (the radiation is hitting my esophogus too, so they told me that would happen). 
I had my port-a-cath removed 2 weeks ago!  Hooray!  I was really concerned that my skin would be stretched out at the port location, but it looks normal except for a little bit of bruising (and a scar, obviously).
I am moving back to Dallas at the beginning of March.  I signed an apartment lease last weekend and I can start to move in March 5. 
So I am doing fantastic.  My hair is getting really thick (not too curly yet) and I have begun exercising again (which hurts!  I guess that is what 8 months of laying in bed does to you).  I have even begun to lose some of the weight I put on during chemo. 
It really hasn't hit me that this is almost over.  Maybe once it is totally over it will.