Cough

Had my MRI. I had a cough brewing as I lay down to start the scan, and let the radiographer know.

"It's okay, just cough in a quiet bit" she helpfully advised. I wasn't convinced.

They injected me with dye mid-way through as usual, and back under I went.

To then do a fairly good cough as the MRI was going. I pointed it out to the radiographer afterwards, thinking we may have to do that bit again.

"Oh it'll be okay" she said. 

SIGH. 

Thing

You find out all sorts. The teen and the husband both told me things from last October that they had forgotten.

The teen, I've forgotten again. I'm saving this space for when it comes back to me.

The husband, today I found out that when I was first admitted to hospital I had a full body MRI scan. I was surprised but I guess it makes sense - they wanted to make sure that there were no other tumours anywhere else in my body. There wasn't. I have no recollection of this at all. 

The only thing I ever remember from MRIs is the noise of the machine, mainly as I'll make a little tune in my head with it to pass the time. Seems to work, anyway! 

Let's Have a Dry Skin Update

Firstly, I'm not worried about it. I can see that dry skin is a common side effect when you stop chemotherapy and radiotherapy. 

Up to now I thought it could be something else (HELLO DR GOOGLE!) but now it feels more like a condition called 'Topical Steroid Withdrawal (TSW)' - which also doesn't feel like a fit as I'm still taking steroids, but feels like we're in the right sort of place.

Evidence!

 - the rash. This is part of TSW

 - my skin is flaky - a dandruff like sort of flaky. I collect dandruff-like skin parts in my clothes, amazed at how much my skin flakes actually create. To help counter it I'm putting on plenty of MooGoo Udder Cream which helps. ALSO - "Our Skin Milk Udder Cream is also used in Oncology hospitals and clinics across Australia as a moisturising cream for dry and damaged skin following radiation treatment and chemotherapy." So when the time came to check creams with the Oncology department this was approved quickly - and I had an order placed for the following day. 

So this is what we thought was probably a chemo rash (taken a few weeks ago), though could be an antibiotic rash - maybe it's TSW. However, now the rash has gone the skin where there was a rash is flaking, dandruff style. It's the skin healing and getting back to how it was, there's no indication how long it will take before it gets back to normal (which is normal). 

Now for the grim bit. My body is so good at collecting all the flaky skin that I can see it in the bathroom on our mats and on the floor, so can imagine it's just as bad in other places (under t-shirts, pants, trousers, etc). Nothing a wash/vacuum of the area won't fix, but I'd much rather not be doing that - it makes me tired anyway. 

A lot of this feels like guesswork, so that appeals to my 'must know everything' nature.