Me too. My first tattoos!
Thankfully, I never needed anything like that. I know a woman whose now-deceased husband had glioblastoma, and had to cut his hair for the first time in decades (since he turned 18!) so the mask would fit properly. There were also some masks on a table off to the side, and during my radiation, I drove a friend and her housemates to the airport and told them about it. One of them said, “I saw that on ‘Gray’s Anatomy’. I thought that was just something they did on television.” I told the radiation therapist about it the next day.
Personally? Nothing yet. But in my family - my mother had uterine cancer (while carrying me) and breast cancer. She was one of 11. Of the 11, at least 6 have had cancer. My father was a non-smoker who died of lung cancer. I’m one of 5. One sister dead from rhabdomyosarcorma. One brother with melanomas and kidney cancer. One other sister with thyroid cancer and breast cancer in the same year. We say that our family are cellular over-achievers.
StG
Meanwhile in my family it’s all heart disease. On my mother’s side most of the 10 siblings either had heart disease at death or died from it. Only two had cancer that I know of - one uncle who had heart disease for decades when he was diagnosed with leukemia, and an aunt who did not have heart disease, did have have two incidents of cancer - 50 years apart! - and died not of cancer but of kidney failure some years after beating the breast cancer.
On dad’s side: multiple early (30 or younger) deaths from heart disease. Dad’s mom had had heart disease for decades when diagnosed with bladder cancer which eventually killed her. Dad was having heart problems when he was diagnosed with the lung cancer that eventually killed him. Should I mention the 60 year smoking habit? Could be related.
Of my three siblings and I, three are still alive. Two of them have a form of heart disease that is likely to be their eventual death although a heart transplant might put that off a bit longer. Of their four children, two are already deceased from heart disease (both under 30). The two survivors have the same heart problem as their mother and will eventually need a heart transplant, if they can get one.
I always expected I’d wind up with heart disease as my big scary problem and likely death.
Nope. I got cancer. (Not that you can’t wind up with both - see above mentioned uncle, grandmother, and father)
When I was diagnosed, my sisters and I finally compiled a complete family medical history. Our Southern grandparents were from the “we don’t speak of such things” generation so it was spotty on that side. I knew Southern Grandma had breast cancer, but my sisters were in college then so they didn’t know. I didn’t know Southern Grandpa had prostate cancer because I was little when he had it. At least my niece and nephews will have a full medical history available to them.
Do you know if familial hypercholesterolemia runs in your family?
I found out a few years ago that a branch of my family tree appears to have the gene for ovarian cancer. Thankfully, I didn’t spring from it.
1999: Testicular cancer, pure seminoma, left side, contained in the testicular capsule. Left side orchiectomy. CAT scans every six months for two years showed no other tumors. No radiation or chemotherapy.
Yes. We’ve known for decades that mom had it and it’s in her family tree, accounting for why heart disease was so prevalent on that side and why it affect women just as often as men.
On dad’s side there’s a gene loose that causes fatal arrhythmia and, if you escape that, long-term deterioration in the heart.