Done with Radiation

David Poncelow — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 14:25:00 +0000

I’ve been really bad about writing here over the last couple of months, for a couple different reasons. I find that I have a hard time writing about something for public consumption that I don’t quite understand yet, and I’ve had quite a bit of processing to do.

As of Monday I’m done with radiation, (and I’m quite happy to be done). I’m doing OK, though it’s a bit painful as my skin renews itself. Luckily my skin held up quite well, and it’s only been the last few days that I’ve had any problems.

The radiation was an every day thing- every weekday morning at 8 I would take my scooter up to the clinic on first hill, change into a gown-shirt, and wait for my turn at the machine. When my turn came, I’d undo half of my gown and lay down on a steel table with a padded donut to cushion my head and a couple u-shaped cradles for my right arm. I would hook my left thumb into my belt loop and then the technicians would then raise the table to the proper height (a little over waist high for most of them) and use two laser beams across my chest to line up against three tattooed dots that I got on my skin when I first started. They would then roll me and put a foam pad underneath, lining me up in three dimensions so that I was always in the same position.

When they were satisfied that I was in the right location they dropped the table and moved me towards my feet. They then turned on a light in the X-Ray head (a large, roughly hemispheric head connected with a substantial rotating arm to a large box by the wall) and lined the light up against a sticker (‘tagaderm’) that marked the top of the radiation ‘field’. They would then place a long thick membrane onto my chest (strangely called a ‘bolus’) that acted like more skin, allowing them to focus the energy closer to the surface.

At this point, everyone would leave the room, moving to the other side of the 9-inch thick door. Lead shutters in the x-ray head would move to create a complex contour. These shutters are a little difficult to describe - if you put the fingers of both hands together in a line index finger to index finger and pinky to pinky, it would be something like them. Move each pair of fingers apart a little and you can describe a shape. That’s what these lead shutters were like, each pair of ‘fingers’ around 5mm thick.

The head would rotate to above my left shoulder, aiming at my right chest, and the beam would be turned on. The machine would create a buzzing sound and an flashing light would turn on. The beam would stay on for 6 or 7 seconds, and then turn off. I would hear some whirring in the x-ray head, a pause, and then it would be turned on with a different power- the intent was to give me an even dose of radiation from the skin to 3cm down.

The x-ray head then moved to the next position, over my right shoulder. A different shape was described, and the beam came on again. Another move to beneath my right side and two more beams. A technician then came in and placed a wedge-shaped piece of steel in front of the head to shape the strength of the next beam, left the room, and the beam came on a final time.

I believe that the radiation is measured in a unit called the röntgen- I’m not sure I caught the actual unit name correctly, but I got 6000 of them around my chest and 5000 around my right clavicle. If the unit actually was a röntgen, that compares (according to Wikipedia) to 50 that I would have received in background radiation over 60 years.

Over the course of my treatment the treated area got redder and redder. I put aloe on three times a day, occasionally getting some odd looks (but strangely no questions) while doing so at work. It held up quite well though, only becoming a little sore until last weekend, with one day of treatment to go. At that point I started getting blisters and the skin started turning dark and peeling off- I just posted a couple pictures up to flickr. It’s gotten a bit worse since and will likely continue to do so- the worst usually comes a few days (up to 7) after the end of treatment. From what I understand, it should get better fairly quickly after that.

So that’s radiation. Now that’s done (save the healing). Chemo is done. Now I just have the Herceptin and the tamoxifen. Each of those are a piece of cake- the tamoxifen is just a pill I take in the morning and evening (and will for the next 5 years), and although the Herceptin is injected into my port like chemo, it only takes 30 minutes to go in and there are no ‘pre-medicines’ needed to mitigate side effects or allergic reactions. I just have to do that every three weeks for the next year. So the worst part is over and things are looking up. Now I just get to start getting back into shape and lose the 15 pounds that I gained during these treatments!

I’ll try to post a little more on the emotional side of all of this (particularly chemo ending) soon. It’s strange, but the hardest time I’ve had emotionally was after the chemo was done.

Last Chemo treatment

David Poncelow — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:54:00 +0000

I received my last treatment of Taxol yesterday. It went well, and it’s such a relief to have that part of all of this over with. It was a pretty easy treatment… the Taxol always seems like such a long time, as it goes in over three hours. That plus the visit with the oncologist, the blood test beforehand, and all of the pre-medications makes it stretch out interminably. I sat in the treatment room with a rather nice and enjoyable (and talkative!) guy this time.

The nurses were all so sweet, too- they brought me a piece of cake with a candle in it and sang ‘happy last treatment to you’ to me. I know that I’ve gone on about how well taken care of I’ve felt at Swedish, but I really have been cared for by some remarkable people.

Of course, now that the chemo is done I get to start in on the rest of the treatments. Everything from here on out comes all at once. In two weeks I meet with the radiology oncologist for my radiation consultation, getting all set up for that bit. The treatment itself will start in three weeks, so I’ve got a little bit of time off. Unfortunately Ballard doesn’t have the equipment to do the radiation treatment, so I’ll be heading downtown for that part. It shouldn’t take too long for the treatments, but it’s going to be every day for six weeks. Luckily the downtown campus is on my way to work, so hopefully I’ll be able to do these treatments on my way too or from work.

In three weeks I’ll start getting my first Herceptin treatments as well. According to Julie (the nurse that usually takes care of me) this will be a piece of cake. No real chemo-like side effects, and it should take only about an hour to pump in with no pre-meds. So it will probably be only a morning rather than the full day that it has been. I’ll be doing that one every three weeks for the next year. At the same time I’ll be starting up on the hormonal treatment. tamoxifen. I’ll get that one for the next five years or so.

It’s such a relief to be moving on to the next step. More to come.

Z80 - The Diagnosis Is Not Consistent With The Gender of the Patient: Tag radiation

Done with Radiation

Last Chemo treatment