Your Blood Pressure Must Be High

A week has passed since my last radiation treatment and while the side effects are subsiding, they are still noticeable. The most noticeable of which is my voice. Those little radioactive particles zapped my vocal cords. You should hear me try to talk. The sounds of my voice have been likened to a 90 year old man, a habitual smoker, and a stoma patient. Seeing as I like to talk and in fact my job requires me to speak with people on a fairly frequent basis, the last week has been interesting. People usually do one of two things when they hear me for the first time. They either empathetically ask if I am sick or just subtly take a few steps back to be polite, yet ensure that they don't catch whatever it is that is making me sound like this.

The other effect people have been mentioning is my red face. Because radiation is kind of like a bad sunburn (except way worse), the treated area becomes red/pink after awhile. My chest didn't get too red, but my face turned blazing red. I practically look like a tomato and people have been drawing their own conclusions as to why.

"Your face is red, did you just get done working out?"

"You look tan, did you go somewhere warm?"

And my favorite assumption of them all - "Your face is red, your blood pressure must be high."

I am so happy to be done with radiation. At first, the only toll it took was on our gas tank with the daily trips to the cancer center, but after a few weeks the radiation effects were worse than the chemo effects. The horrendous mouth sores and swollen throat were enough to make a girl that can only eat mashed potatoes quite miserable. I've been telling people that I would take chemo over radiation any day. But to be honest with you, I would much rather never have either one again.