I'm over half way done!!

I'm over half-way done with radiation!  I'm so excited, and really looking forward to being all the way done.  I have 13 treatments left, 8 of which are full treatments, and 5 of which will be only on the lumpectomy site.

I'm starting to get a little burned, and my doctor said that radiation will continue to burn my skin for up to 2 weeks after the treatment, so by mid-August I should start healing and feeling better.  In the meantime, I'm applying coconut oil to the burns all the time, to the point where I'm starting to smell like a day at the beach.  Ah well....at least it's the right season!!

On a more fun note, although radiation makes me tired, it's no where near the awfulness that chemo was, and it's been so much fun to do some "normal" things, even if it's between naps.  This weekend we had a bunch of family over for lunch, and we got to take my grandma back to Omaha.  Here's a photo of 3 generations of the Patterson women:

It was fun to have people over for lunch, and it was fun to spend time with family.  After spending what seemed like such a long time not being able to do much at all, I truly treasure times like these.

God has taught me so much over the last 7 months, and has been so faithful.  Even so, I am really looking forward to getting back to life more fully.
 
Also, though you can't really tell too much in the picture, my EYELASHES are growing back in!  So are my eyebrows, and I am just thrilled beyond words to have them coming back.  I'll never take them for granted again!  Pretty soon I'm going to try wearing mascara again, and I can hardly wait!  My hair is growing back in too - it's not quite half an inch right now, but I've been happy to see that it's growing back in nice and dark.

Please join with me in praying that the burns don't get too bad.  Not only is it pretty uncomfortable, but if they get too bad, I'll have to take a week off of radiation, and I really want to be done on July 29th!