The Waiting Room Was More Helpful

The Waiting Room Was More Helpful

🌼 Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2026

⚡ Energy: Running on stubbornness and puppy supervision

❤️‍🩹 Status: Slightly crispy but still standing

😑 Outlook: One treatment closer to the finish line

Today was my first weekly check-in with the radiation oncologist after treatment.

After finishing radiation for the morning, Casey was released from his post in the main waiting room (poor guy gets exiled out there while I go through the back door club of gowns and lockers). We headed into the exam room together, armed with my list of questions.

And yes…of course I had a list.

If you know me, you know this should surprise absolutely no one. Between chemo brain and my general love of organization, if it isn’t written down, it’s gone forever.

So here we go.

My questions for the good doctor:

1. Should I be taking anything to prevent bone loss from radiation?
2. I’ve been getting headaches after every treatment.
3. The nausea has come back most mornings. Isn’t that supposed to be over now that chemo is done?
4. Why does my chest feel like someone wrapped a giant rubber band around it?
5. Isn’t it a little early to already be feeling the itching and general “radiation ick” when today was only treatment #5?

When the doctor walked in and saw my list, he kind of froze for a second.

Like a deer in headlights.

Which made me wonder…do people not normally ask questions?

Sir…have we met?

I am a list person.

Anyway, we went through them one by one.

For the bone loss question, he recommended calcium and vitamin D, which I had already started taking. He also reassured us that because of the location of my radiation field, the only bones at risk would be my ribs, nothing structural like my spine.

Okay. That was helpful.

Then we moved on to the headaches and nausea.

Apparently those are not typical side effects of radiation, which he said in a way that almost made it sound like I had invented them for fun.

But interestingly enough…he still refilled my nausea medication from chemo.

So…make of that what you will.

As for the tightness across my chest and the early itching and discomfort?

His answer was essentially:

“Make sure you’re using the lotion.”

When I asked exactly how far across my shoulder blade and into my back I should be applying it, he said:

“Just as far as you can reach.”

Well.

That certainly clears things up.

By the time we left the appointment, Casey and I both kind of looked at each other like:

Did we really just spend 30 minutes of our lives for that?

Honestly, I feel like Google might have provided the same answers…possibly with better bedside manner.

But speaking of lotion, I have now become something of a radiation skincare connoisseur.

I currently have three different lotions in rotation:

• The one the radiation team recommended (which, to me, smells a little…questionable).
• The oncology lotion from the same brand that helped me through my snow globe phase. I still use that on the non-radiated parts of my body.
• And the new one that arrived this weekend.

I have to say…this third one is the winner.

It feels like silk going on, still contains the calendula they recommended, and it also has aloe, cocoa butter, and shea butter. Best of all, the smell doesn’t make me wrinkle my nose.

So for now, Team Lotion #3 is in the lead.

Once we got home, the normal post-radiation routine kicked in:

Feed the puppies.
Wash their faces.
Wash their dishes.
Take them outside.
Lotion time.

Then it’s straight into my trusty silky jammies and off to nap.

Radiation may be exhausting, but at least I have two very dedicated assistants making sure I follow doctor’s orders.

And by assistants, I mean two tiny supervisors who insist on napping directly on top of me to make sure I don’t get up too soon.

Apparently this is serious work.

And when you’re paid in treats…you take your job very seriously.

💗 Tina –
One Badass Day at a Time