First thing in the morning, I got a call from the radiologist office. It was a girl who happened to be the sister of my my Mother's best friend, the nurse at the doctor's office she worked at before she died. She had recognized my name on their appt book and decided to throw herself into action. She got my appt that day switched to the other office where we could get all the prep work done to start radiation ASAP, instead of having to spread it out over a couple of days. She also explained to me some of the facts of radiation. There are little to no side effects, with the exception that you hair falls out in the treated area. Yep, I was gonna lose my hair again. At least this time, I get to keep my eyebrows & lashes. There was some fatigue but with all the healing from the breast surgery, I'd prolly not notice that much & I was going back on the steroids to help that anyway. Oh joy, let's gain another 10 pounds! It was good to talk to a familiar voice though, and it did calm my nerves a bit.
Hubby took me to see the radiologist. This is the same woman I saw in the beginning who didn't want to do radiation cuz I had no tumors in my body. She's 6'5"...I'm not kidding....and just such a comforting soul. She explained to me first and foremost that I was NOT to look at this as 'here I go again' cuz that wasn't the case. Our brains have a saran wrap shield around them and these spots were prolly there before but the PET couldn't see them. Also, as far as chemo, the meds don't get to your brain becuz of that shield unless it is given directly into the spine for brain, which mine was not. My chemo worked beautifully just as it should and there was no reason to think that the radiation wouldn't do the exact same thing to these...gulp, tumors....in my head. She said she was very 'cautiously optimistic'. She also told me that we'd do about 3 weeks, every day but weekends, all over my head, then spend about a week concentrating on the one bigger one that was pressing against my brain that was surely causing this vision problem. She said if all went as planned, my vision would be just fine. Okey doke, then....
The nurse took me back and explained to me that we had to make a mask that would steady my head for my treatments. It was an eerie hot mesh that laid over my head and hardened. We finished that up in about 10 minutes and I was done for the day to report back to the closer office the next morning for my first radiation treatment.
I was numb. Brain cancer. Tumors. Radiation. It was hard not to feel like 'here we go again' but I had to keep thinking the same way as the first time....'Trust the doctors, trust the meds, trust God'
Hubby took me to see the radiologist. This is the same woman I saw in the beginning who didn't want to do radiation cuz I had no tumors in my body. She's 6'5"...I'm not kidding....and just such a comforting soul. She explained to me first and foremost that I was NOT to look at this as 'here I go again' cuz that wasn't the case. Our brains have a saran wrap shield around them and these spots were prolly there before but the PET couldn't see them. Also, as far as chemo, the meds don't get to your brain becuz of that shield unless it is given directly into the spine for brain, which mine was not. My chemo worked beautifully just as it should and there was no reason to think that the radiation wouldn't do the exact same thing to these...gulp, tumors....in my head. She said she was very 'cautiously optimistic'. She also told me that we'd do about 3 weeks, every day but weekends, all over my head, then spend about a week concentrating on the one bigger one that was pressing against my brain that was surely causing this vision problem. She said if all went as planned, my vision would be just fine. Okey doke, then....
The nurse took me back and explained to me that we had to make a mask that would steady my head for my treatments. It was an eerie hot mesh that laid over my head and hardened. We finished that up in about 10 minutes and I was done for the day to report back to the closer office the next morning for my first radiation treatment.
I was numb. Brain cancer. Tumors. Radiation. It was hard not to feel like 'here we go again' but I had to keep thinking the same way as the first time....'Trust the doctors, trust the meds, trust God'
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