Since radiotherapy i’ve been experiencing a noticeable increase of fatigue. However, nowhere near comparable to chemotherapy. This has basically meant sleeping in a bit longer in the mornings and going to bed a little earlier than usual. I’ve not had to have sleeps during the day, but I have been told by my radiotherapy oncology team that I should take it easy for the next few weeks as otherwise my recovery period will be longer.
Skin on my neck and chest is good, it seems to be getting better actually (less red).
The back of my skull is very sensitive and I need to be especially careful in the sun, this will probably be the case for several months.
A busy day at the hospital today, but now it’s all over!!
Dietitian and Nurse appointments were very routine, much like the majority of my previous radiotherapy appointments. The hair I lost through radiotherapy will probably take 2-3 months to grow back, back at least it will grow back! The nurse told me that the treatment will continue to work for around 3 weeks from today, symptoms of sore throat and skin redness could increase in sensitivity during this time. Anyway, by February I should be normal – at least thats what i’m hoping.
Off to celebrate by having a nice restaurant meal.
11 sessions down, and only 4 more to go!
Xmas has been and gone and I even managed to leave Melbourne and spend some time (a few days) in NSW with my parents for Christmas. Symptoms are the same, if not better than my last post.
The sore throat comes and goes, but its less sore – which I can’t explain, but i’m not exactly complaining. Fatigue hasn’t been a real problem. Not like Chemotherapy. I have been having a few slow days, but not being forced to have a nap (like I needed with Chemo).
One other symptom that I noticed only just today was hair loss. Radiotherapy only affects hair in the areas that are directly exposed to the field. When i’m lying in the bed my head is locked into a position that my chin is pointing to the roof. The radiotherapy beam goes through the body and as such, some of the hair on the top of my neck/head are in the ‘exit field’ of the radiotherapy beam. Today in the shower I was washing my hair and I started shedding hair. It’s hard to tell how much I lost as my hair is so patchy anyway (due to hair loss from the Chemotherapy). It certainly seemed like a lot in the shower though! Anyway, no biggie – even though I do want to grow my hair again and this may delay that plan – it’s only hair!
I now have a few days break from the therapy as the hospital closes for New Years Day. The next treatment session is next Tuesday, and my LAST session is next Friday! Woohoo, bring it on!!! 🙂
I have had 5 sessions of radiotherapy out of a total of 15 so I am already one third of the way through. Symptoms of the radiotherapy so far include;
- a slightly sore right ear (ear is in the path of the radiation) but this has since subsided
- a little fatigue (started just today actually)
- a little sore throat (again, just started today
All in all, not too bad so far. Fingers crossed things remain this way!
First day of radiotherapy today. All in all, not very exciting.
A normal session of radiotherapy should take around 15 minutes, however as today was my first it took considerably longer than that.
There was an issue with the initial measurements on my mask from the previous planning session, so the first step after getting strapped into my mask was recalculations – what they were recalculating I don’t know exactly. I left that up to them.
Because they are targeting my upper chest, which is in close vicinity to my heart – X-rays were taken to ensure that they really did have my body in the right place.
Once the X-rays confirmed the position was good the button was pressed and the machine did its thing. Only took around a minute for the actual ‘radiotherapy’ to be administered.
Much easier than getting a Chemotherapy administration! And only 14 more to go, too easy?!
After the radiotherapy I met with a Radiotherapy Nurse who took my blood pressure, temperature, and asked me general health questions. Then she went over the most common side effects i’ll experience which are mainly sore/dry throat and fatigue – both of which will most likely get worse as time goes on. Also worth noting is that the side effects can remain for 4-6 weeks after the last Radiotherapy treatment. So even though my radiotherapy finishes on the 6th January 2012, I may not feel ‘normal’ until late Feburary. I also got some more mouth wash (same as I used during Chemo) and some cream (Sorbolene) which I need to apply twice daily to my upper chest and neck.
Today I had another appointment at the hospital – the planning of my radiotherapy. I would call it preparation rather than planning. Items done at the appointment today;
- Mask created of my face/shoulders/neck – this mask is made of a plastic mesh material and will be used each time I have radiotherapy. The mask is meant to position my neck/head in the same location each time so that the radiotherapy doses are accurate each time. The mask was made with me laying on the tray with my chin pointing to the ceiling as far as I could. Then a pliable warm mesh was added over my head and about 8 hands then continually padded it around me until the mesh had hardened.
- Initial measurements/markings performed – With my mask on, strapped in – it is so tight that I can’t not speak. I need to stay in the same position the entire time and obviously with the mask I cannot move my head. Various measurements were taken by my radiotherapy team, and markings made on my body. I currently have 3 ‘crosses’ on my torso and also 3 ‘tattoos’ (3 black dots) in the centre of each cross. The tattoos were news to me, I was not aware that was happening until seconds before the needle was inserted! Another memento eh? 🙂
- Baseline CT scan – Again with my mask strapped on I had another CT scan. This scan will be used as a baseline for my radiotherapy treatment.
My radiotherapy should be starting on the 14th December and will be 15 sessions in total. The dates/times have not been finalised yet, but it should start around that time.
Unfortunately this means that I will be having Radiotherapy over Christmas/New Years, on the other side – the good news is; I should finish my radiotherapy regime by early January 2012.
I had a meeting with a radiologist yesterday. My first initial consultation regarding radio treatment. Basically the plan will be to nuke my neck and chest once a day for 3 weeks (3×5). This will happen probably around 6 weeks after my chemotherapy ends. They like to give you body a bit of time to recover from chemo before killing other things. My last jab of chemo juice is November 18th (just around the corner!!!), and 6 weeks after this basically puts me into the new year.
There are a stack of side effects related to radio, which differ from Chemotherapy – but the combination of chemo + radio has better results (smaller chance of relapse) so radio is the way I’m going. I do have the choice however, to not take on the radio – this would mean that I would need an additional 3 cycles more of chemotherapy (another 3 months, 6 months in total).
The main short-term side effects are things like dry throat, redness of exposed areas, and fatigue as you go on. Unlike chemo, the effects are compounded as you continue the treatment.
The ‘potential’ long term side effects/risks can be quite nasty. These range from losing the functioning of the saliva glands in one’s mouth (constant dry mouth) to the development of secondary cancers (1% risk). As my thymus will be getting blasted, there is also a small risk that I will develop problems here in the future (5%).
I’ll have to get changed into a hospital gown and lie down on/in a machine before it zaps me. The ‘zapping’ (not the term most commonly used) will only be 3-4 minutes per day, so the actual process of radiotherapy administration should not disrupt my day too much. Hoping I can return to work prior and during this time, however time will tell on that front.
In other news my next chemo session is tomorrow, this will be 4 from 6. 4/6 = 66% – yeah!
|
|
