I had truly expected to be able to update my Blog earlier this week, but the treatment got the better of me and I spent Tuesday night and all day Wednesday (after returning from treatment) in bed. The nausea really came on strong and kicked my butt. Today I was finally able to get back on the computer and do some catch up on work items.
Now for the update.
In addition to the nausea, I am experiencing mouth and tongue sores and have started using the lidocaine rinse more often and actually had to have a little Vicodin on Tuesday. Other than that, I am tolerating the pain and in fact doing much better than my Radiologist thought I would be. She commented that I must have a very high pain threshold to be functioning without more pain meds.
This week they were having problems aligning me so I was sent to check the fit of my mask with the thought of having to rescan me (CT Scan) and have a new mask fit.
View from the Control Room
The radiation technologists must align my body the same every day to ensure the radiation hits the targets correctly. They take X-Rays everyday and a CT scan once a week. The X-Rays, as shown below, allow them to check the alignment and is done by a panel that comes out from the linear accelerator, so once I am on the table they can just do the X-Ray and make the minor adjustments to my body.
I had quite a few folks worried about the alignment so I had my Radiologist, Dr. Le-leaning over me below, her resident, Dr. Chu-behind Dr. Le, the person responsible for all mask production and a few radiation technologist working on this issue.
In the end, they were able to continue to use my current mask and scans by putting a mark on the top of my head. As my doctor pointed out, you have no hair, so this makes it simple. I told her I was highly offended by her characterizing my wide part as 'not having any hair'. We all got a laugh out of the conversation as we usually do on her visits and makes their job that much easier when they have a compliant patient.
For those of you lucky enough not to have seen a CT scanning machine, but have watched House on TV, here is a picture of one of the machines, I do want to point out the they are very quite, in fact, after having about eight scans, I can actually nap while the 45 minutes that they spend scanning goes by. The machine that most TV shows use is the MRI machine, because that is the loud banging machine and is much more dramatic than seeing a machine with a pair of feet hanging out of it, with no sound accompanying the visual. Also, I have yet to see a doctor actually running any of the machines, that what technicians do.....but it looks better on TV when the docs are watching for results (again, note the 45 min it takes to do a scan of just do my head and neck!)
I am now at the half way point for Chemo and looking at only 13 more radiation sessions and so far my blood work continues to show an OK red blood cell count (no anemia from the radiation, yet), my skin burns have been kept under control with Aloe Vera gel and special skin cream, my mouth is developing sores but they are not a major issue yet and my Erbitux (Chemo) rash has peeked and is actually subsiding. The biggest issues I am having is the recurring nausea and forcing myself to eat because the lack of taste buds sets up a situation where the pain I incur when I eat is not worth the pain of chewing and trying to swallow. I gave up trying to eat solid foods yesterday and am now eating soups and smoothies. My weight has been steady this week but I am down about 4 lbs since the start of treatment and now the weight issue becomes critical due to the pain as mentioned above.
I have been following a few other patients going through treatment at the same time I am and feel that I am doing on par or better than most, so I continue to know that I will make it through treatment fine and on my way to recovery after the New Year.
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