Calypso Beacons, IGRT, treatment updates

Update Friday morning -
Rectal bleeding is there, but not as bad as I was warned - about the same as the earlier 12 core biopsy.
Pain is gone - just annoyance now. Did not need pain meds.
My ultra-high deductible is met for the year.

Wonder what and why the difference between your "Calypso" markings and my three tiny tattoos?

I'm also scheduled for IMRT later in April. (26)

Had no pain at all and only took 15 minutes, c/t scan included.

Update - On Monday, no more bleeding noticed, no pain - seems, overall, less invasive than the biopsy.
Just wondering if I'll ever be able to trust a GPS receiver again -

shudder

Post Edited (142) : 3/29/2010 2:17:56 PM (GMT-6)

142,

Good luck with the radiation,hope you have an easier time than I did with it. Please keep us posted of your rad journey too.

David in SC

142,

Your treatment is similar to what I had. I had 39 treatments, but 72 gy, instead of your 70.2. Glad you got the water issue settled with them. Yeah, my machine indexed around me 7 times. Despite having 7 tattoos, my treatments were plagued with constant alignment issues, hopefully they will be able to get yours down to what they said.

Radiation, my friend, is an endurance contest. Getting there the same time everyday, whether you want to or if you feel like it ,is half the battle. Sometimes, you will feel like you are in a time warp, like everytime you open your eyes, you are back in the machine, day after day. That part will pass of course.

I wish you all the best on yours, and hope the Side Effect Gods are kind to you, and you can get through this.

David in SC

Hope all goes well for ya, with no side effects.

Neal

Wow, you are having a more complex thing than me.

Pee shouldn't be a problem. I'm naked from the waist down during my RT, well from the nipples down in fact as I have to pull my shirt up too, so if I leak/blow then my skin and the equipment get wet but my clothes stay dry. (They said beforehand not to worry or feel embarrassed if I do wet myself as they have seen everything when it comes to such things)

One of my tattoos is so small and feint it had to be marked with marker pen today as well.

The tattoos are the reference points for the computer and humans to work out where things are for the plan (During the CT scan lead balls were stuck on my skin exactly on the tattoos to show up on the images)
My planning stage was thus about working out the position of the prostate bed in relation to these three reference points, plus which angles to aim the beams from so as to avoid collateral damage.

I asked if they would do any additional CT scans during the treatment to check if things were still in the same place and they said no as they are only working to the nearest centimetre anyway.

There are some RT machines that have a built-in CT scanner and these are used for things like throat or brain cancers when they are working to the nearest millimetre and they may want to recheck positions before each session.

Regarding the target moving between the CT scan and irradiating it, this was what they said my strange diet was for. The idea is to slow down the guts but also have them empty so everything will be the same if it is empty, hence the diet started 5 days before the CT scan and will continue till the last session.
The state of the bladder is thus also relevant and why I have to pee and drink a specific amount of water a specific time before the session. (and why today I asked if it was okay that they were running ahead of schedule and about to treat me 25 minutes early as by bladder was not exactly full - the response was to take me off the machine and tell me to get dressed and go back to the waiting room! They slipped up there. And were very glad I had mentioned it.)

I have also decided to make sure I hang around at the hospital afterwards to calmly go to the wc and really empty things as not all the water I've drunk gets processed till about an hour later, so it is of course an advantage that for most of the journey home I am in a train with a WC about twenty feet away from my seat.

I'd better stop counting your sessions to avoid losing count of my own. (It's bad enough that I had it all worked out as five each week so Fridays would be 5,10,15,20 ect and now in the the first week the Friday is a national holiday so RT is shut and it's just 4 this week and the Fridays are now going to be 9,14,19,24 etc.

It's bed time in Holland so...
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Alf

Alf,

I suspect that my Calypso markers, which are implanted in my prostate bed scar tissue, provide the same target that you would see from the CT scan. There is a panel above and one below me that track the three markers, a sort of mini GPS. The machine got upset today, and had to briefly reposition. The girls tell me that is why I spent extra money on the Calypso.
They do still have to recheck the tattoos each day, because the Calypso can not fix my position, but just tell them if it is wrong.

They make sure the WC is clear when I get through, because full bladder does not describe it.

This is a small clinic, so you just empty the pockets, lose the shoes, get positioned with pants down to the knees and a light cloth over the waist. They have a mold of where my legs were when they did the planning CT, so I get into that, and leave them to do the rest of the positioning.
They position the Calypso panels, which find and identify my markers (they have a unique ID), and the computer makes sure that the program plan is really mine before it allows them to start. Then off to the races (i.e. the race to see if they finish before I have to pee too desperately).

They do run a steady stream of patients, and have changing areas, but I've never seen anyone use them.

RT had to deal with a complication with another patient this afternoon so there was a queue and there were five of us in the waiting area for about 15 minutes

Two of the guys (who were both over 70) had had gold markers and both were having 39 sessions and I was interested that they both said that they had been in severe pain for about 24 hours after the markers have been placed, enough for both to seek help. They said they would not recommend gold markers to anyone else because of the pain.

Alf

keep hanging in there, 142, you are doing well, one treatment at a time.

(I had a day off on Friday as it is a National Holiday in Holland)
Interesting that you mention loose bowel I have had that already too, still at the normal time of day and just one BM per day, but now also had sudden pain insdie me after BM, lasted for about 10 seconds in area where prostate used to be, then had a dull ache in that area for about an hour, similar to how it felt down there about two weeks aftyer the robot.
I also have a mild undefinable sensation in some areas of my skin around my pelvis as though something in a pocket is pressing against me. So making a point of not sitting too long in same position.

Anyway the job today is to go and buy some pants that fit as it has been too hot for jeans and my wardrobe is full of stuff that fitted before the robot but is now too tight at the waist.

Roll on Monday (when I've also got my next chat with the doc)

Alf