Day + 69 Radiation Begins

LINEAR ACCELERATOR
KIRAN & DEE

MOM (IN THE WAITING ROOM.....AGAIN!)

It has been a couple weeks since my last entry......
The first week, I spent trying to get my head wrapped around the idea that I had any activity left in this lousy tumour. I have to admit that I was quite discouraged, to put it mildly, that my PET/CT was positive. However, there is still a good chance, that with intense radiation therapy(RT) it will kill the remaining cells......& hopefully, none of these cancer cells have traveled anywhere else.

Last Tuesday, my Dad, Jasper & I went into "The Camp" for a few days of R&R. I rode my bicycle, read, watched inspirational DVD's, went for walks.....& used the time to prepare myself for these next 2 1/2 weeks of RT.

This morning, Mom & I went to my first appointment of the day....I had to be there for 8:45pm. to register. Then I changed into a Johnny Shirt & housecoat....I got to keep my jeans on. I was brought into my appointment at the scheduled 9am. time. Kiran & Dee (Deanna) are my Radiation Therapists.....for the duration of my 25 treatments. I will also be on the same machine for all the treatments, unless it decides to act up. We have 3 machines that have the capacity to do my treatments. I really like the fact that that same two people will administer my treatment every day....we are already developing a relationship & it will be comforting to have that familiarity.
My first appointment took about 45 minutes.....as they had to get all the kinks worked out....they performed x-rays....so they could use pictures of my bones to help with lining me up properly....they also had to get me positioned properly in my VacLock(a mold of my body to keep me still) , warmed up the shields that protect most of my organs.....surrounding the treatment area in my chest. Once they had me set up to their liking, I received my dose of radiation. I received 2 doses to the front of the chest & one to the back of the chest. As I mentioned before, I will receive 25 treatments over two & a half weeks. I will go Monday-Friday twice a day with 6 hours between treatments on the same day. For those of you who like to know the technical side of things.......I will receive 45 gray(Gy) which equals 4500 centagray(cGy) in total over 25 treatments.
Each treatment will equal 180 cGy....since I am having 2 treatments a day, that means I will receive 360 cGy per day.
To break it down further......Dr. Wilke has designed two fields in my chest & one field in my back......
the larger field in my chest, covers an area that includes my tumour, plus a larger area that covers a good portion of my media stinal area where my tumour used to be when it was larger. He does this, so that he will kill an micro cancer cells that may be there but are not visible via the Pet/CT scan.... the first dose of radiation is for 74 cGy & took approximately 30 seconds to administer.
the smaller field in my chest, zeros in on my actual tumour mass. After the first dose of radiation, a second dose called a "Boost" is administered......this dose of 8 cGy only took a few seconds. (therefore, my actual tumour is receiving a higher dose....74cGy plus 8cGy)
the larger field in my back is the same size as the larger field in my chest, however the dose is 98 cGy. Apparently the dose is higher because it needs more energy to reach the tumour from that position....it has something to do with physics that was difficult to explain.

The machine used for RT is called a Linear Accelerator.

After my first treatment was over, we went over the side effects again.....(I do not feel anything while receiving treatments).....
probably by the end of the week, my skin will start to feel sensitive in the treatment area....like a sunburn.....eventually, it will feel like I have a lump in my esophagus.....I may have trouble swallowing foods....therefore, a liquid diet may by in order. This lump feeling is really just a bad burn to my esophagus.....& food will irritate it while traveling to my stomach.
Another common side effect is "Fatigue"......everyone handles this differently....so we will see.....apparently exercise helps.
Anyway, I will describe any symptoms, as I experience them.

After my appointment, I had to go for bloodwork. Every Monday, I will have bloodwork.....RT also kills good blood cells.

In between appointments, I went for a late breakfast at Mom & Dad's house.....then for a walk with Mom.....then I went home to rest & read a book on my swing.....it was a beautiful warm sunny afternoon.....
At around 2:45pm. I headed back to the hospital picking Mom up along the way.....my appointment was at 3:30pm......it was on time & went smooth....I was home by 4:30pm.

1 day done.....only 12 more to go!