Almost there!

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!!! 🙂

Radiotherapy: 33% complete

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!

Radiotherapy: Day 1

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.

Back to work

I returned to work today, the first time in over 3 months. I only worked for 4 hours, but that was enough. Even though I had been working from home over the past 3 months, actually being at work made me very tired.

I will progressively return to work, but I feel it will be awhile before I can handle a full week.