Here we GO! IMRT/IGRT

Today was day one of twenty five.
Drank 14 ounces of water 70 min before treatment, got there, robed up, locked down to the couch with the mold, got zapped, got dressed,took a leak and drove home. I felt nothing, I feel nothing, I guess I got treated.
Very uneventful. More to follow.

Steve

Steve D. -

You said:

"Today was day one of twenty five.
Drank 14 ounces of water 70 min before treatment, got there, robed up, locked down to the couch with the mold, got zapped, got dressed,took a leak and drove home. I felt nothing, I feel nothing, I guess I got treated.
Very uneventful. More to follow."

Take the above six lines, think of them repeating over and over 24 times, and you've pretty much got the sequence of events for the next 24 days (excepting weekends).

Hopefully, you will be able to avoid the side effects that may or may not come, but if they do, that's what your radiation oncologist is there for.

As has been said, it's pretty much an endurance race. But now that you've gotten even one treatment out of the way, you know you'll be good to go for the rest of them.

Good luck!

One of the ways I amused myself during my treatments (which are pretty boring, actually) was by trying to convince myself that the beam was accompanied by any sensation at all. There were a few times when I could imagine that the hair on my stomach was shifting (as if someone was holding a static-charged balloon two inches away) but I probably imagined it.

The only pretty-much guaranteed side-effect (and this will hit you towards the end of your treatments) is a renewed appreciation of an afternoon nap. I asked my RO about it and he gave me a song and dance that sounded like he was explaining it but, on subsequent review, appears only to have said that radiation makes people tired -- any kind of radiation for any sort of disease makes most everybody fatigued -- and nobody knows exactly why.

Enjoy those naps. They are the best part.

Steve, "very uneventful" is good! Let's hope you give that report 24 more times!

Jim

Day 2 same as day 1.....Uneventful.

Redwing I sure hope I don't get up 5 or 6 times a night as I only sleep about 5 or 6 hours a night as is. I'll be one cranky man if that happens.

Day 4, same as day 1.....Uneventful.

Monday after treatment I have an appointment to see RO.
I guess I'll just take the weekend to relax.

Wonder how long, if ever, you feel anything beside fatigue from the radiation. I don't remember your story but did you plan to do HDR followed by IMRT/IGRT?

Steve - sounds like you're doing fine so far.

I found that the urgency got a little worse during treatment but nothing that a couple of extra trips to the restroom couldn't handle. Never had anything like leaking or not being able to get to the restroom fast enough. Just had to make sure I stopped by the men's room before going into meetings.

Watch out for the fatigue bit. That gets some guys.

Hang in there,
Andrew

Steven D -

Don't let those machine "resets" rattle you. I remember experiencing a few of those myself, but as far as I ever knew, none of them ever translated into any kind of problems for me.

As a matter of fact, I remember thinking at the time that, to tell the truth, I was actually rather glad the machine was being persnickety over some detail, since it implied that the machine was actually catching something before it really did become a real problem.

Those resets can be jarring! You get used to the rhythm of the treatments, and changes catch your attention, sometimes alarmingly.

One time, my machine cut off 3/4 of the way around its second pass. There's normally a farirly loud buzz from the power supply while it's delivering treatment, and it just abruptly cut off. The techs said don't worry, just resetting, as it wound back to its start position for the second pass. So, it starts again, and BUZZZZZ it makes the delivery noise again! I'm kind of freaking out, thinking I'm getting double dosed or something. Then it stopped again at the same point.

So, calling out to the tech I told them I was worried about this. The tech came in the room to talk to me, put her hand on my shoulder, and said it's ok, it's not delivering treatment even though the buzz was audible. Restart once more the third time, and as it approached that same spot the tech announced it was about to start delivering treatment, and the sound changed very subtly at that point.

After it was over, she explained the machine displays "monitor units" for them as it delivers treatment, so they know for sure what it's doing. I was comforted that they did answer my questions, since it's pretty lonely "in the vault". There are lots of safety interlocks, but after all the whole thing really is just a computer-driven ray gun....

Just like Redwing57 mentioned, its becomes routine after about halfway through treatments. By then I had it all figured out, which way it rotates and stops and how long "Buzz" at each stop.
Then one day everything changed and I lost track of the rotation and stops. After the treatment I asked the tech. what was going on, why the change. She said they could tell that I had it all memorized and they were just messing me...

Also there was a time when I heard a high pitched noise coming from one of the joints. A noise that I've never heard before. Being a gear head of sorts, I'm tuned to strange noises. I asked the tech about it after my treatment and she said were no indications on the panel and would have it check out.
Come to find out a bearing was just about to wear out and could have shut down the machine if it was not caught. It was repaired that night and working fine the next day.

Heres hoping the rest of your treatments go as planned
bertb

Post Edited (bertb) : 10/23/2013 2:31:24 PM (GMT-6)

Day 8, NOT the same as day 1.....Minor event.

The person that gets treated ahead of me got treated fine but my turn comes and I get all set up films taken everything lined up but the machine won't treat. Tech puts machine thru a test procedure to no avail. After a few min tech tells me I will get my treatment on the other machine, there are two identical machines at this location. I get slotted in between the people that are scheduled for the other machine. More films taken, machine lines up and zaps away, I'm done. Only about a 20 in delay, not to bad.

I meant to ask tech but they were a little busy, is there any issues being treated on different machine? Anybody know?

Steve

Thanks Andrew, I was told today that it was a communication error between the machine and the computer and they were up and running in about two hours.

Day 9, same as day 1.....Uneventful.