SISTERS BY CHANCE, FRIENDS BY CHOICE

Yesterday was a good day.  My first official treatment went great.  I was surprised at how quick, easy and painless it was.  If only this could last the whole six weeks!   I thought I would address just a few questions that I seem to get a lot, so I’ve put together my own personal FAQ:

Q.  How often do you go in for treatment?

A.  I need a total of 30 treatments, so I go in every day, Mon-Fri for 6 weeks.  If I miss a treatment for any reason, they just add another one onto the end. 

Q.  How long does a treatment take?

A.  The actual radiation part takes only about 5 minutes.  With setting up and changing time I can be in and out of there in about 20 minutes. 

Q.  Does it hurt?

A.  I’ve been told that the treatments themselves don’t hurt.  What does begin to hurt is the skin where the radiation is being administered.  Kinda like a daily sunburn I've heard.

Q.  What side effects will you experience?

A.  Side effects vary a lot from person to person and also depend on the location of the body that the radiation is being given.  For example, radiation to the head will cause you to lose your hair, whereas radiation to your stomach may make you nauseous.  I have been told that the most common side effect I will probably experience is fatigue and general tiredness – both physical and mental.   

Q.  What can friends do to help?

A.  Come to lunch with me after a treatment and let me spotlight you on my blog J 

GUESS WHO CAME TO LUNCH TODAY?

My lunch date was my faithful and loyal sister, Kandis (aka Kan, Kandisimo or Kandesu-Tokyo – you’ll have to ask Steve about that last one).  Kandis is my younger sister by 19 months.  She is married to her  sweetheart, John Aggen, and they have 3 adorable kids – Wayne (9), Daisy (7) and Walker (3).  I love those crazy kids of hers.  They each have such unique personalities.  They are so fun and entertaining to be around.

Pretty lady!

Aggen Family

How can you not smile when seeing this face?

As kids, Kandis and I almost always got along (at least that's how I remember it... she might tell you differently). When we did fight, it was usually over her stealing my clothes.  My mom even instated a rule where Kandis had to pay me money for every item of clothing she took without asking.  Still didn’t stop her, the little thief!  

I have to brag my sister up for just a minute.  Her claim to fame is that she got to live out every little girl's dream - she got to be every Disney Princess you can think of (well, the Caucasian ones at least. haha).  Cinderella, Snow White, Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland,  even the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio.  You name the princess and I could probably drum up a picture of her as that princess, flawless and cute as a button.  You see, she worked at Tokyo Disneyland for over a year where her job was, well, to be a princess.  She has that all-American beautiful face that could look young and innocent, like a Little Mermaid, or grown-up and glamorous, like a Sleeping Beauty.  She is still just as beautiful and will always be a princess in my book!

To my great benefit, Kandis and her family moved to Utah from California about 5 years ago.  They all love it here and spend lots of time enjoying the outdoors - skiing in the winter and hiking in the summer.  I love it because we get to go to lunch here and there, have the occasional family dinner and let our kids play together.  We are both busy moms, but when we do spend time together we can talk and talk and talk some more. Add my mom into that picture and you can hardly get a word in edgewise!  We never run out of things to talk about.  But she is also a great listener and always has time to listen to me, no matter what I might be venting about at the moment.

Kandis is a fun mom, a paper-crafting genius, a thoughtful friend, a bookworm, an organizational queen, a decorating pro, an extremely hard worker and just an all-around amazing and beautiful person inside and out.  I consider myself lucky to have her as a sister, AND a friend.  Love you to pieces Kan!

We went to Pizzeria Limone at Fort Union, which I highly recommend if you have not yet been there.  They do personal size brick oven pizzas to order with toppings like fresh mozzarella, proscuitto, lemon slices, pears and even blackberries.  Their Italiano salad is scrum-diddly-umptious and today I tried their fire-roasted tomato zuppa, which was super delish. There is another location opening by Scheel's sometime in the near future.  Can't wait!

Aly