Good morning and Happy New Year to all. This week I reached a milestone in my treatment. I completed my 10 rounds of radiation and rang the bell. I am in awe of my alien, the linear accelerator that I call Lin-ack. Each time, I would lie on a table with my knees over a bolster and my feet wedged into a rubber form to help hold me in place. My arms were above my head holding a set of handles, again to keep me in position. The table rose to about 6 high. The technicians took care to align the beams from Lin-ack with the tattoos on my chest and ribs. Then the technicians went behind 2 lead walls to begin the process. Lin-ack has one 24 inch diameter round surface that I call the head. It is the deliverer of the proton beam that kills the cancer cells. There are two imaging arms that come out from either side that ensures proper alignment of the beam. The head and arms can move independently around the table. It was almost like a mother looking down onto her child and putting her arms around to offer comfort. Once aligned, Lin-ack lowers her head to about a foot over my body and with a quick click, delivers a proton beam to kill the cells and to fuse the fracture in the vertebrae. It does not hurt and only takes about 20 minutes from the time I get onto the table until I am back in the changing room. Now, I get to deal with the side effects. I was careful to lather the targeted areas with aloe and coconut oil to keep from getting a sunburn from the radiation. There is some itching on both my chest and back in the affected area. I am told that it may turn brown like a tan before it goes away, but no big deal. After 4 treatments, I started to have difficulty swallowing, especially liquids. I had the weekends and Christmas day off so the side effects were slow to appear. It became hard to swallow liquids and my mouth became especially sensitive to hot liquids. I then started to be extremely dehydrated during the night. My tongue was so dry that one night I had to use my fingers to pull my cheeks off the enlarged tastebuds. I felt like an aquarium fish that had jumped out of the tank and curled up to die on the floor. Ive never had my tastebuds swell, it was creepy. My esophagus is feeling the damage of the radiation, I can barely swallow a tablespoon of liquid without extreme pain. I called the doctor today and he is calling in a prescription for magic mouthwash which will coat and numb my throat so I can swallow, I found that a humidifier in my room at night, and plenty of Gatorade before bed helps keep me hydrated. The doctor said the side effects were at their worst 2-3 weeks after completion of treatment. So today, the pain in my back is under control with 15mg. of Codine sulfate every 4 hours. I am okay up and moving around for about 2 hours, then I have to lie flat for 1/2 hour. At night, I can sleep for about 5 hours before the pain becomes intolerable and I have to get up. But, I expect to be pain free and able to swallow in about 2 weeks. I saw the lung oncologist, Dr. Langer, on the 15th. There wasnt enough viable tissue for molecular analysis so I elected to have another biopsy to determine targeted chemotherapy. I was waiting for their office to schedule the biopsy. In the meantime, I went for my first monoclonal antibody shot to start rebuilding the bones., I go to get the shot and they wouldnt give it to me because I didnt have my blood work completed. The doctor failed to tell me to get blood work so I was at the hospital an extra hour. Yesterday, I called the doctor to find out about the biopsy. They told me that that they were waiting for me to schedule my chemotherapy and that they would use the results of the biopsy as an alternative treatment if the usual chemo didnt work, or as a maintenance treatment. I was shocked. When I left the doctors office I was expecting to get the biopsy this week and begin targeted treatment when the results came back two weeks from now. This whole experience left me uncomfortable with Dr. Langers office. Jim called the surgeon to schedule the biopsy and he made an appointment with another oncologist for Jan. 19th. So it looks like Ill have time to get over the radiation before the chemotherapy starts. Ill let you know whats next on my journey back to good health.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 13:45:57 +0000
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