Polly gets crispy

My skin is really crisping up from the daily onslaught of radiation. My breast and chest look horribly sunburned, and covered with little raised bumps. And in my armpit, the skin has darkened to the point that it's starting to look charred! Hey, anybody want some grilled armpit?? I hear it's really delicious! But seriously, it's starting to get uncomfortable, so I've got to take extra special care of my skin. You should see the top of my dresser—it's full of different creams and ointments that I'm supposed to slather on throughout the day. I'm so greased up that I feel like one of those slip-n-slide mats the kids used to play with. The good news is that I've got one more radiation treatment left this week, and then a break for eight days while I visit the family in CA. I'm hoping the time off will relieve some of the skin irritation before I start getting fried again. Not looking forward to the flight, though. Think anyone on the plane would mind if I went shirtless? My grilled skin feels better when there's no fabric touching it...


On a very sad note, I learned last night that one of the members of the Pink Ribbon Cowgirls (my cancer support group) just passed away. While I didn't know her very well, I was really shocked by the news, as I had just spoken with her at one of our luncheons in November. She was seven years younger than me, and left behind her husband and a young son.

My daily supply of skin gels, ointments and creams.

My irritated "charred" armpit. It's actually darker than the photo shows.