Day #17 & Changes
Day #17. Down. First day (1 of 5) of what they nicknamed, "Tumor Blasts."
While that sounds scary, it's really not. All it means is that they refine the radiation field down to a much smaller area around the tumor bed. It also means they are no longer radiating the entire breast and surrounding chest. Which is really awesome because I had my worst day of shooting pains so far yesterday after treatment. I think my body was screaming "enough, already!"
Today, I have had very little pain and discomfort. And since I already kicked fatigue's butt and sent him away; none of that either. This visit was a long one because they had to do a lot. They took new measurements and X-rays and drew new marks in different places. The aligning and machine resetting took quite a while.
Before, the machine had two different positions for treatment ... one to my far left angled down toward my right chest and the other out to my right side and angled slightly up. Now, I am zapped from three different positions. One is higher up but still to the left of my mid-line, the second is higher up but to the right of my mid-line and the third is near the last position out to my right even with my side and angled up (very close to the second position of all my previous treatments). It seems like while they are zapping me three times instead of twice, the duration of each is shorter. It is very precisely directed to a very small area compared to the large area the radiation was treating before.
And just to be clear, there is no evidence of a tumor. That was removed during surgery with clear margins and there has been no sign of a cancer large enough to spot since then. While some radiation/proton treatments are designed to shrink/kill a tumor ... others are preventative. As is the case with mine, they are attempting to kill off any microscopic cancer cells in the general vicinity that might take root and grow another tumor. They don't know if there are any, they can't see them on a CT scan and maybe this wasn't even necessary. But statistics say that my odds for recurrence in the local area are from 25 to 30 percent. After radiation, those odds drop to 4 percent. I will take 4 out of 100 rather than 1 out of 3 any day.
There are many risks and some people do very poorly. I have seen some pictures on the internet where the body part that was radiated looked like ground-up, raw meat. Not pretty. Some people experience burns and extreme pain or fatigue so bad they miss work. When I hear the RO tell me how great my skin looks after all this, don't think for one minute I don't feel the greatest sense of relief and gratitude and realize just how lucky and blessed I am!
I saw my doctor again today (I see him every Tuesday during treatment) and after doing an exam and such, he once again remarked on how amazing my skin looked especially for my breast size. And he did something else (although it turned out a week early ... lol) ... he gave me a "graduation" gift. My RO is a big John Wayne fanboy. There are pics, movie posters, memorabilia, etc. of the Duke all over his office. He handed me an engraved wooden plaque with a quote from the beloved actor on it.
That same plaque hangs in the patient waiting area where the dressing room is located to put on those lovely blue paper gowns before treatment. I have seen it every time I go in for treatment ...18 times now.
"Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway. -- John Wayne.
Truer words were never spoken.
While that sounds scary, it's really not. All it means is that they refine the radiation field down to a much smaller area around the tumor bed. It also means they are no longer radiating the entire breast and surrounding chest. Which is really awesome because I had my worst day of shooting pains so far yesterday after treatment. I think my body was screaming "enough, already!"
Today, I have had very little pain and discomfort. And since I already kicked fatigue's butt and sent him away; none of that either. This visit was a long one because they had to do a lot. They took new measurements and X-rays and drew new marks in different places. The aligning and machine resetting took quite a while.
Before, the machine had two different positions for treatment ... one to my far left angled down toward my right chest and the other out to my right side and angled slightly up. Now, I am zapped from three different positions. One is higher up but still to the left of my mid-line, the second is higher up but to the right of my mid-line and the third is near the last position out to my right even with my side and angled up (very close to the second position of all my previous treatments). It seems like while they are zapping me three times instead of twice, the duration of each is shorter. It is very precisely directed to a very small area compared to the large area the radiation was treating before.
And just to be clear, there is no evidence of a tumor. That was removed during surgery with clear margins and there has been no sign of a cancer large enough to spot since then. While some radiation/proton treatments are designed to shrink/kill a tumor ... others are preventative. As is the case with mine, they are attempting to kill off any microscopic cancer cells in the general vicinity that might take root and grow another tumor. They don't know if there are any, they can't see them on a CT scan and maybe this wasn't even necessary. But statistics say that my odds for recurrence in the local area are from 25 to 30 percent. After radiation, those odds drop to 4 percent. I will take 4 out of 100 rather than 1 out of 3 any day.
There are many risks and some people do very poorly. I have seen some pictures on the internet where the body part that was radiated looked like ground-up, raw meat. Not pretty. Some people experience burns and extreme pain or fatigue so bad they miss work. When I hear the RO tell me how great my skin looks after all this, don't think for one minute I don't feel the greatest sense of relief and gratitude and realize just how lucky and blessed I am!
I saw my doctor again today (I see him every Tuesday during treatment) and after doing an exam and such, he once again remarked on how amazing my skin looked especially for my breast size. And he did something else (although it turned out a week early ... lol) ... he gave me a "graduation" gift. My RO is a big John Wayne fanboy. There are pics, movie posters, memorabilia, etc. of the Duke all over his office. He handed me an engraved wooden plaque with a quote from the beloved actor on it.
That same plaque hangs in the patient waiting area where the dressing room is located to put on those lovely blue paper gowns before treatment. I have seen it every time I go in for treatment ...18 times now.
"Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway. -- John Wayne.
Truer words were never spoken.
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