Radiation

My first radiation treatment was today! I’ll go every weekday for the next two weeks for a total of ten sessions.

I had a CT scan last week to give my radiation oncologist a better understanding of my neck anatomy. Using that, she designed a program targeting the exact area in my neck where the cancerous lymph nodes were and that’s where the radiation beams hit.

The most important rule of radiation is that you CAN’T MOVE! We wouldn’t want the radiation beams touching anything (like my thyroid or salivary glands) other than where they are designed to go. To keep me totally still, I’m strapped down to the radiation table by a face mask that was specially made to fit me!

To make the mask, they put a big piece of plastic mesh in a warming machine and molded it to my head and shoulders for a perfect fit. They took A LOT of measurements and made marks everywhere to ensure that the beams hit the exact target points each time.

Each session under the mask is only 10-15 minutes. Most of that time is making sure everything is lined up correctly. The radiation machine is only truly "active” for about one minute and I don’t feel anything. They said the side effects will be feeling sleepy and possibly a sore throat and feeling like I have a sunburn on my neck. When I asked the radiation tech to take an action shot of me, she told me this is the one consistent part of her job — everyone wants a photo wearing their radiation suit in the machine!

The radiation will kill any remaining microscopic cancer cells and then I get to be done with MD Anderson for awhile.

Continued thanks to all of those near and far checking in on me. A few more weeks and we are done with the treatment part of my cancer journey!