RADIATION BEGINS MAY BE MORE TO COME
AUGUST 8TH 2005
Well, went in for my first actual radiation treatment. Yes, I had to wear that damn mask. I had to have the radiation field marked with markers. Its like having a map drawn on you. It showed exactly where you are getting radiation. Im actually getting a pretty large area treated my entire neck and upper chest area. They decided not to treat under my arms. The treatment lasted a entire 45 seconds to one minute max. They shoot you from the front and once from the back. At least I didnt have to wear that mask long.
After the treatment the nurse said that radiation doctor wanted to see me. So I went and met with her. Dr. Zhu. She asked if my cancer doctor went over my scans with me and I told her he said everything came back clear. She then said that she studied the scans and was not so sure that the cancer was gone. She said she thinks the CT scans shows a 1cm tumor left in the neck area. However he PET scan shows no activity. She said thats why they do radiation to make sure the radiation kills off any cancer cells that Chemo may not have killed. She asked me if they let me see my first PET scans when I was diagnosed. I told her they did not. She said it was quite impressive. She said I had a very large mass of cancer in the neck area. She said even if I do still have a 1 cm lobe left that Chemo did a very good job of treating the cancer for the amount I had. So that news was not to bad.
The next news was not all that good. Not really scary bad but bad that I may have to get additional radiation treatments. If you remember back to the first of my blog to the staging section. The initial scans showed a small area in my lower back on the PET scan. At that time my cancer doctor was not sure what that was and the CT scan was thought to be clear. That is the spot that if it was cancer made me a stage III. Well the latest PET scan and CT scan show that spot is now gone. However the radiation doctor studied the original CT scan of that area and she thinks that it was Hodgkins in my lower back. She highly recommends that I get an additional 17 treatments to my lower back. This is after the 17 to my neck are done. My cancer doctor never showed any concern about this. So I was on the phone trying to talk to him but he is gone for a few days. I did talk to his nurse and she said he is aware of the 1cm spot in my neck but not concerned. It could be scar tissue. If it is cancer the radiation should get it. Reference to the spot in my lower back she didnt know anything and said she would have Dr. Johnson call me.
The kicker is that the decision for the 17 treatments to my back is going to be left to me. Yea, she said I have to decide. Im not the doctor. All she could say was she recommends it be done. She said you dont want this to come back the second time. Im going to wait to talk to Dr. Johnson. Nothing can ever be simple, yet could always be worse.
See ya Saturday night at the fundraiser.
Well, went in for my first actual radiation treatment. Yes, I had to wear that damn mask. I had to have the radiation field marked with markers. Its like having a map drawn on you. It showed exactly where you are getting radiation. Im actually getting a pretty large area treated my entire neck and upper chest area. They decided not to treat under my arms. The treatment lasted a entire 45 seconds to one minute max. They shoot you from the front and once from the back. At least I didnt have to wear that mask long.
After the treatment the nurse said that radiation doctor wanted to see me. So I went and met with her. Dr. Zhu. She asked if my cancer doctor went over my scans with me and I told her he said everything came back clear. She then said that she studied the scans and was not so sure that the cancer was gone. She said she thinks the CT scans shows a 1cm tumor left in the neck area. However he PET scan shows no activity. She said thats why they do radiation to make sure the radiation kills off any cancer cells that Chemo may not have killed. She asked me if they let me see my first PET scans when I was diagnosed. I told her they did not. She said it was quite impressive. She said I had a very large mass of cancer in the neck area. She said even if I do still have a 1 cm lobe left that Chemo did a very good job of treating the cancer for the amount I had. So that news was not to bad.
The next news was not all that good. Not really scary bad but bad that I may have to get additional radiation treatments. If you remember back to the first of my blog to the staging section. The initial scans showed a small area in my lower back on the PET scan. At that time my cancer doctor was not sure what that was and the CT scan was thought to be clear. That is the spot that if it was cancer made me a stage III. Well the latest PET scan and CT scan show that spot is now gone. However the radiation doctor studied the original CT scan of that area and she thinks that it was Hodgkins in my lower back. She highly recommends that I get an additional 17 treatments to my lower back. This is after the 17 to my neck are done. My cancer doctor never showed any concern about this. So I was on the phone trying to talk to him but he is gone for a few days. I did talk to his nurse and she said he is aware of the 1cm spot in my neck but not concerned. It could be scar tissue. If it is cancer the radiation should get it. Reference to the spot in my lower back she didnt know anything and said she would have Dr. Johnson call me.
The kicker is that the decision for the 17 treatments to my back is going to be left to me. Yea, she said I have to decide. Im not the doctor. All she could say was she recommends it be done. She said you dont want this to come back the second time. Im going to wait to talk to Dr. Johnson. Nothing can ever be simple, yet could always be worse.
See ya Saturday night at the fundraiser.
posted by Jason at 3:00 PM
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