All in all my first radiation treatment went fairly well with the only discomfort being the mask covering my face to down below my collarbone. It is bolted down to the table and was so tight it actually left impressions in my forehead and chin. It gives you a suffocating feeling!
The treatment machine moves 360 degrees around your head and the radiation beams for my plan are inflicted at nineteen different angles. This will be consistent for the remaining 34 treatments. So it takes about 15 to 20 minutes for the complete treatment. They also take x-rays before beginning the treatment to make sure I am positioned correctly on the table to minimize the killing of too many good cells. There were no immediate side effects to the first treatment and none should start to appear until after the first or second week.
Following that I went to oncology for my chemo treatment which lasted about 7 hours. Fortunately there were no problems with the port this time which made me and the nurses staff quite pleased. I expect the normal side effects to take place over the next week as the dosage was increased a little bit to give as Dr. Balaban said, "More bang for your buck on the radiation treatments". So I guess it is kind of a booster to the radiation.
Radiation will continue tomorrow and through the rest of the week at 8:30 a.m. and continue
the following Mon- thru - Fri until we get through 35 treatments. Stay tuned for daily updates!
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3 comments:
Fight the good fight Tom. You're in my prayers. Stay strong
Lynn Leasure
Hey Tom:
You're "the man". We're with you and I've got a prayer request in for you at Sacred Heart Catholic Church this coming Sunday. Reminder --- Red Sox play tonight at 7:00 your time!
Al Merkel
People should read this.
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