March 10 2014 Next Up Dust off your battle gear army because Tuesday we launch another attack on neuroblastoma. Next up we have radiation therapy and Tuesday GABI will go for her formal radiation simulation. Compared to chemotherapy, radiation is tolerable. Compared to dance class, where a 3 year old little girl should be, radiation is awful. GABI has triumphed so many times that I keep forgetting that she shouldnt have to be doing this at all. She should be in preschool with the other 3 year olds. My anger is a little flared up today because this past weekend was an amazing weekend to be a little girl who attends Busy Bee Playschool. There were 2 birthday parties at Sparkle Up and a weekend spent all playing together. Only GABI didnt get to go because she is not yet allowed near other children. I guess that pisses me off. She did get to go to IHOP with her family for dinner and when you have not seen anything but the hospital and your bedroom for 2 months, IHOP is Disneyland! Last weeks check up revealed that her counts continue to slowly climb up, with white cells leading the way and platelets slugging behind. Platelets are always the last to come in and last to tank up. There must be a reason for this because its pretty universal. Platelets can be transfused so its not a huge problem, just what happens. Tuesday PRINCESS GABI will go in for what is called radiation simulation. During this procedure, she will be sedated. Radiation simulation requires absolute stillness for an extended period of time. 3 year olds have trouble with that. The radiation techs are going to set up and simulate where they will shoot the radiation therapy GABI will be starting. It is CRITICAL that they point the beams at the exact right location and it can be a matter of centimeters. So, they spend time before radiation begins, positioning GABI, putting their tattoo marks on her body to indicate where to shoot the beams, and making their notations of how to position her body. Simulation is time consuming, but actual radiation treatment takes about 10 minutes. They will be aiming at the primary tumor sight, in the abdomen, hoping to kill off any remaining live cells. Of course, radiation hits everything else in the path so there are side effects. They also have to be careful not to hit any vital organs with intolerable doses. Its an exact science and why they spend time simulating before the actual treatment. I will do my best to keep everyone updated as this new treatment gets on the way. Please keep PRINCESS GABI in your thoughts and prayers Tuesday. Once radiation is complete, she is officially halfway through treatment, Yay!
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 11:15:19 +0000