I had radiation on Friday. After a ton of consent forms and photos and timestamps, they lay you down on this bag of styrofoam beads that they contour around you and then suck all the air out of, so that it makes a form that holds you rigid. They do this once, and keep the form throughout your therapy. They then take a CT scan of the target area - in my case my spleen, and build up the 3D model. After the model is done, the skin is marked so that everything can be aligned on the radiation table. I was told that I was going to be tattooed for that, but they ended just drawing on me with a sharpie and then putting clear stickers over the ink because my platelets were so low that they were worried that I might not stop bleeding and that it would be an infection risk.
The radiation took about 20 minutes and consisted of a big square paddle which hovered over me and buzzed for a little while, then went underneath me and buzzed for a little while. Doug asked some questions about it which I am going to find out about, because I am sure that it is a fascinating process behind the scenes. I just did not know what to ask while I was there. I will be going in for radiation on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. There were no ill effects. There was the possibility that the spleen would release too much dead material, called tumor lysis, and my kidneys would have a problem, so they have been giving me extra fluid to mitigate that possibility, but from my blood work, it looks like that has not happened. I might have slightly elevated nausea, but it is hard to tell, since I have nausea from the chemo.
I have been slowly recovering. I still need 2 units of blood and 2 or 3 units of platelets a day, but the amount that I am retaining is slowly increasing. I also recently have been able to taste food again. Somewhat fitting is the fact that the first food that I could really enjoy was potatoes. Today I had saag paneer that Becky brought back from me from an Indian restaurant in Hannover that she and her Texas friends went to last night. It was delicious, and some of the first food that I have really enjoyed. Last night I had the hospital's chicken pot pie, and was surprised with how good it was. The biscuits were freshly made and it was full of freshly cooked vegetables cooked just right. I guess I had not realized that all the good vegetables were hiding out in the meat dishes, because the vegetarian dishes here are just cheese-based with very few veggies. Tonight's meal is fresh crab cake on spinach, which, after the pot pie experience, I am tentatively looking forward to checking out.
The radiation took about 20 minutes and consisted of a big square paddle which hovered over me and buzzed for a little while, then went underneath me and buzzed for a little while. Doug asked some questions about it which I am going to find out about, because I am sure that it is a fascinating process behind the scenes. I just did not know what to ask while I was there. I will be going in for radiation on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. There were no ill effects. There was the possibility that the spleen would release too much dead material, called tumor lysis, and my kidneys would have a problem, so they have been giving me extra fluid to mitigate that possibility, but from my blood work, it looks like that has not happened. I might have slightly elevated nausea, but it is hard to tell, since I have nausea from the chemo.
I have been slowly recovering. I still need 2 units of blood and 2 or 3 units of platelets a day, but the amount that I am retaining is slowly increasing. I also recently have been able to taste food again. Somewhat fitting is the fact that the first food that I could really enjoy was potatoes. Today I had saag paneer that Becky brought back from me from an Indian restaurant in Hannover that she and her Texas friends went to last night. It was delicious, and some of the first food that I have really enjoyed. Last night I had the hospital's chicken pot pie, and was surprised with how good it was. The biscuits were freshly made and it was full of freshly cooked vegetables cooked just right. I guess I had not realized that all the good vegetables were hiding out in the meat dishes, because the vegetarian dishes here are just cheese-based with very few veggies. Tonight's meal is fresh crab cake on spinach, which, after the pot pie experience, I am tentatively looking forward to checking out.
Leif,
ReplyDeleteYour very informative descriptions of all the various treatments are fascinating. Keep up the good work!
The radiation treatments you are going through brought back some memories for me. I had severe asthma as a child and my Mom and Dad took me over to Oklahoma City for what were then very experimental allergy treatments. One that I well remember was a seriers of massive chest x-rays that were designed to help break up the congestion in my lungs. I was fascinated as a child (I think I was about 5 years old) because all the "doctors" in the room wore lead suits!
A few years later I had a Plantar(?) wart removed from my food with another massive x-ray dose. I still have a deep scar from that.
About the time of the foot treatment (about 1946, not long after the first A-bomb), the world got scared about radiation and all such treatments stopped (as far as I know). At any rate, I worried for years about the dread effects of radiation. One Dr. even suggested that I have the radiation scar on my foot cut out! (By that time I had sense enough not to listen.)
At any rate, now that I'm well past my "use-by" date (the median age at death when I had the radiation treatments was 65) I have decided that my concerns about "radiation" were way over-blown.
The point: the short-term benefits of your treatments are far more important than any potential trivial longer-term effects, though with your knowledge of physics I'm sure by this stage you're well aware of that!
Our love to both you and Becky.
yum
ReplyDeleteSo happy to hear session one went so well. The hospital menu sounds pretty yummy. Sneaky to hide the veggies in plain sight like that.
ReplyDeleteWell, not in plain sight - under the meat. There are no veggies in the vegetarian options. That was really my point. :)
DeleteWe also are looking forward to your hospital discharge! I know you will love the alpaca farm and rental Becky has....not to mention the new futon specifically just for you!
ReplyDelete