After my diagnosis, the treatment plan for me was the most aggressive. This entails 6 weeks of radiation in conjunction with 6 weeks of chemotherapy. My Neuro-oncologist considers this the foundation treatment. Here is some up close and personal information, and what my normal has become.
Radiation has been keeping me busy. I go down to the Virginia Piper Cancer center at Abbott 5 days a week for my treatment. I know I have touched a little previously that radiation is essentially pretty quick and painless. I head back into the room and visit with my same nice friendly techs everyday. They situate me down on the table and then place my mask on and lock it down. There is a bright red light that shines down which helps to notice any movement but basically I just close my eyes and stay still. The table adjusts and the arm connected to it are what move to get the position correct. The laser goes off twice. I can hear it but luckily don’t feel anything. The first time it goes off, is the longer of the 2 times and each week the time of this one increases. Once that is done the table rotates 90 degrees and then the laser goes off again for the second shorter time. The unfortunate part of the second round, is every time there is an awful burning smell. Imagine what you will, a burned hair or flesh smell and I can’t breathe through my mouth because it is closed under my mask so I get 2 wonderful deep breaths of the odor before it dissipates. Unfortunate but not awful. Just a reminder of what I am actually doing there. Then, it’s done for that day. Once a week I meet with a nurse and see the Radiation Oncologist. We discuss any side effects. I did start having some headaches so I was put on a steroid to help with that. They believe it is just some swelling from the activity on the brain. Common thing to happen. There is also an antibiotic I have to take every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The most important thing for me during this time is to stay healthy. Each week I am always asked about tingling and numbness which I haven’t experienced so I believe I’m tolerating it well. The hair loss is legit, I’ve got a nice bald patch in the back of my head where my treatment area is. This last week I am noticing some scalp irritation so I have to apply a specialty cream they gave me. It is a little itchy and uncomfortable at times but not too bad.
I am lucky regarding my chemotherapy and just take my oral pills at night at home. I do have to get blood drawn once a week. They do a complete blood count, and my levels have all been normal so far, so they say my body is tolerating it well at this point. The biggest side effects from the chemo is nausea and constipation. Both of which can be easily dealt with extra meds. I take so many medications now it is crazy. I addition to treatment ones, I also take an anti seizure medication twice daily. I had to get weekly pill containers to keep everything organized! As far as the chemo this round, I will only take 5 weeks worth in this first cycle because I need to stop radiation and chemo at the same time. My body needs a 2 week break before my next chemo cycle. The plan stands now that I will continue with chemo on a higher dosage cycle where I take pills for 5 days, then have 23 days off. This will continue for 12-18 months. However this plan can easily change depending on the results of scans. My first post-treatment scan is on May 29th. I will then have a scan every 8 weeks. I’m already feeling a new term I picked up on my new cancer journey, scanxiety! Made me giggle a little because how true! It is a new way to live life when you could be redirected in a different path every couple of months. It will be an adjustment, that’s for sure.
Truly my days revolve around treatment, eating, napping and taking medications. Honestly without the cancer part I would be living the dream :) I pray my body continues to tolerate everything as well as it can!