Radiation Completed

Last Thursday afternoon I completed my 14^th and last radiation session. As a quick reiteration, this is how radiation is given.

A styrofoam mold is made of the part of the body to be radiated. The cast is then used to hold your body in the correct position during radiation to reduce the damage to other areas. In this case, I laid on my back for treatment so the cast ran from the waist up to the top of the shoulders and up my sides. M my head rested in another support. I rested my arms on pillows above my head.

The second step is to use lasers and tattoos on my chest to make sure I am in the correct position before the treatment begins.

When all is aligned the techs leave the room, and the treatment begins. An x-ray source then moves around the body to several locations and delivers the treatment. Metal leaves in the machine shift to refine the shape of the beam for that location, and the radiation is delivered.

I first had radiation for prostate cancer in late 2001 and early 2002 at the MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC). I had a treatment each day, Monday through Friday, for eight weeks, and each treatment consisted of perhaps 10 different shots aimed at the prostate, each from a different angle. Consequently, the tissue outside of the prostate received much less radiation than the other tissue in the path of the x-ray beam.

I would get up in the morning, eat some breakfast and walk 1.4 miles from the Residence Inn where I was staying to MDACC, get my treatment, walk back, log into the internet, and begin my work day.

What made it interesting was the fact that they wanted a full bladder fat the time of the treatment, so I carried a bottle of water on the way down, and tried to time my drinking to the time of my treatment. Preparing my bladder was probably the most difficult part of my treatment, especially if my treatment was delayed. I had fatigue from time to time to time which kept me from working, but I worked an average of six hours a day. I've always said that if all cancer treatment was as easy and as effective as my prostate cancer, cancer would not be the dreaded diagnosis that it is.

This round of radiation was different. Because my tumor is so intimately associated with my heart, esophagus, and major blood vessels, and is much larger than the prostate, planning the treatments so they do not affect these other organs was difficult. Consequently, the number of treatments had to be reduced. I began to feel more fatigue as the sequence progressed and was told that the level might increase over two weeks following the last treatment. However, it is difficult for me to assess the relative amount of fatigue and lethargy associated with heart failure and radiation. I have learned in the past few days that getting up and moving round every hour or so, and having a cup of tea with breakfast and lunch help. I'm actually feeling better this week than last.

The goal of the radiation is to shrink or “debulk” my tumor so it is not putting pressure on the heart and vessels; however, my radiation oncologist says the she is not sure how much the debulking will accomplish, and my lung oncologist is not completely sold on the notion that my heart failure was caused by the tumor pressing on the heart. We'll just have to see how it plays out over the next few months.