I had my routine checkup today. This involved the reading of blood test (blood taken yesterday) as well as a physical check for enlarged lymph nodes, performed by my oncologist.
Nothing was found with the physical check and the blood test looks good, except for one value that is slightly elevated. This value is Eosinophils and this value was also elevated prior to my treatment (current value is 0.82).
There can be many reasons why this value can be higher than normal, most commonly it is seen in people affected by hayfever, asthma or Eczema. An elevated reading is also seen in people with Advanced Hodgkins.
Both my Oncologist and I are not worried that this is related to cancer, however just to be sure I have had my PET scan advanced forward. I will be going in for another PET scan around the 13th July (date not yet confirmed).
I should also mention that I am currently suffering from Eczema (which I seem to get on my legs during the dry winter months).
I had a consultation with my oncologist today and the PET scan was all clear. There is no detectable cancer in my body which means I have not relapsed since the last PET scan (3 months). Every day past post treatment, the rate of relapse decreases. For me it is already at a very low rate, and this will gradually become ‘0%’ over the coming months/years.
From here for the next 2 years I will need to have checkups every 3 months. My next checkup will be a physical checkup and a blood test which will also specifically test the function of my thyroid.
At the 6 month mark, I will have another PET scan.
At 9 months it will be another physical test & blood test and finally at 12 months another PET scan.
This cycle will repeat for year 2.
Year 3 will require less checkups, but I may be getting a bit ahead of myself now 😉
Anyway – off to enjoy the weekend 🙂
Today I had my ‘final confirmation’ PET scan. The results of this will determine if the treatment initially given to me was enough and if it was then i’ll be ‘cured’ and will not require any more treatment. I will find out the results of this test on Friday.
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Last week my first ‘full’ week back at work. I am putting that in quotes as I have not been working full days, but I have been going to work every day. Usually for around 6-6.5 hours a day, which I think is a pretty good achievement.
I am still feeling a little tired some afternoons and feel like sleeping a bit more than usual in the mornings. My neck has reduced in redness and my skull is less sore. Still going to look weird for awhile yet though I think.
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.
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.
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