To Radio Or Not To Radio??

I know a lot of you been asking and wondering but recovery from surgery is going well. On my last post – op visit, both wounds in arm and in ear are healing nicely. BTW Silicone based strips do wonders for scars, if you ever need to use them.

The only thing is the occasional energy low – that makes me feel like a diabetic without sugar.  I had to keep the Styrofoam on my ear for 2 more weeks, so the skin grass really fused. – But most of it came off yesterday!!! Yuppie!!!

I did miss out on a booking and a couple of auditions right after surgery. But actually since late last week I have tried to be back in the swing of things, and just get very creative at camouflaging my post surgery evidence, so far so good. Amazing what the right wardrove & hairdo can hide... I still cannot do any heavy lifting, weights training or yoga for a month :( , nothing that will put strain on my arm. But I do try at least to go for short stroll walks when the sun goes down.  

Mom left a few days after the post-op …After a month of airplane jumping in the US, the poor thing was so ready to go back home to dad, only to be the next day back on the phone drilling me with specific instructions of what I need and don’t need to do. Oh Moms..! Although, we both say that besides our name we have very little in common, it was great having her around. Besides all her super-duper nursing help, it gave us the rare opportunity to be just the two of us and really catch up. I used to joke with her that getting knocked up would be  the only way to get her to visit  LA, she is so not a fan of large cities but would - like a good Latin mom - do just about anything for future grandkids…However I guess the big C did the trick for me this time. 

The not so fun part is that I met with the radiologist oncologist , and they (the team of doctors) are strongly inclining for radiation treatment, in spite of the good success of the surgery. We spent over an hour going over the benefits, possible radio options, and long, long, LONG list of side effects.  Not an easy decision. It will be prudent to do it, but because of my age, radio could also bring all sort stuff (including other types of cancer) in the future - iacks  The doctors actually want to do more research too…So we are meeting nxt week for a scan fitting and to review options. At this point they are advising 5-6 weeks radio,  five sessions Mon-Fri each week. Ufff!!! Just when I thought my hospital visiting days might be over – on loan from my pal Al Pacino- they pulled me back in!!!

I’ll consult with my surgeons too and see what they think. It is hard when you have rare cancer because neither patients nor doctors have much to compare with. And although I have tried getting a peer-match thru a couple of Cancer support organizations, there are no results yet. My own Big C survivor friends said reactions to Radio really do vary body to body and that there are ways to fight the side effects...Like in the meantime besides busting up my immune system, I was actually told (For The First Time Ever) I should put on weight!! According to the R.N, at 96 lbs I might be too skinny for treatment. Huh!!! Soooo, by the way, invitations to yummy healthy food are welcome (wink, wink ;-p) but recipe suggestions will do just as well. And YES, believe it or not, I’m actually cooking – well at least my version of it (see below).

Enjoy was left of the summer!  It is nice being able to share this ride with y’all. Somehow it does makes things little bit easier.

Wishing u lots fun & giggles this holiday weekend.…xoxox  L

PS..

A few of my kitchen experiments:

mex-chopped salad, Li's version

Thanks S. for recipe. I made this salad for a dinner w/ friends, and  but of course I went and modified a few things...lots of tumeric!! However bowl  was emtpy by end of evening! 

Broccolli/Apple Shake 

Broccoli, one of best anticarcigenous/antioxidant agents - just can't find what the heck to combine with so it won't taste like drinking grass. Hum...i'll try Mango nxt time.