Christmas is in the Air!

I’m more than halfway through my radiation treatment and I can’t wait for it to be over.  The treatment is driving my body whacked!  I’m gaining weight, I’m having a hard time falling asleep and I’m quite hyper after breakfast.  I will blame it on the steroid.  In any case, the doctor suggested weaning out of the steroid so I’m taking 1 mg every other day.  Hopefully, I’ll be ok just like what happened after the surgery when they literally stopped me taking the steroid 2 days after I was discharged.

Advertisement

Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday Madness

First and foremost, I would like to greet everyone Happy Thanksgiving!  This year has been a trial for most of us.  I am grateful to celebrating one year of marriage to my wonderful husband Gian.  I am grateful that despite of the pandemic, God gave my husband a stable job and a side hustle.  I am grateful that despite of the brain tumor and radiation, I am still alive.  I am grateful that despite of the pandemic, we are still healthy and strong. 

After the turkey and the trimmings, it’s Black Friday!!  We headed to Mebane Outlets.  Boy!  There were are a lot of people.  A lot of stores have long lines.  We went shopping with our mask and shield.  In the end, I was able to buy a sweater at Loft and his pants at Banana Republic.  Falling in line wasn’t that great.  Besides, we can always head back when it’s not Black Friday.  I just need to get my steps up (still not hitting my 10k steps a day).  

Catch Me I’m Falling

It’s day 15 of 31 of my daily weekday radiation treatment.   So far I’ve been lucky enough not to feel any major side effects of the radiation.  They put me back on steroids on day 10 which helped with the headache. 

However, no amount of steroids will help with this side effect.  When I woke up this morning and ran my hands through my hair, my hand came out with a lot of hair.  I did it again and still a lot of hair.  I was shocked, I though I got away with this symptom but apparently not.  I’m experiencing HAIR LOSS (huhuhu!). 

Beam Me Up Scotty!

After appreciating the fall colors at the Blue Ridge Parkway and doing what I need to do like there’s no tomorrow, my first day of radiation therapy arrived.  On Nov 3, I started my first day of radiation therapy to lessen the chances of recurrence of my brain tumor and eradicate the remaining tumor cells.  Our schedule was mid-afternoon and they were generous enough to have free parking for treatment patients. 

We arrived there early and stopped by the nurse station to pick up a gown.  I went to the dressing room and just wore the gown on top of what I’m wearing as the nurse advised me that it’s fine.

Open Enrollment, Guardian and Medical Bills

It’s that time of the year again when my husband has to choose what kind of medical insurance and other benefits we would avail as a family with their company.  HR gave them until October 30 to decide.  The company decided to change medical/dental insurance provider from United Healthcare to Cigna.  The other stuff remains the same. 

In any case, it was also timely as we wouldn’t have realized that he has this additional critical illness benefit that will help us pay off our medical bills.  For UMR, our annual out of pocket maximum payment is $4,500 for individual and $9,000 for family.  The ER visit, surgery and inpatient hospital stay already maxed out my annual out of pocket maximum.  That’s $4,500 we need to come up to pay for our share of the bill.  The hospital allowed us to pay in installment and gave us a grace period of 120 days.