Today we met TJ’s Radiation doctor to plan for his upcoming radiation treatment that begins next Thursday 7th June 2018. We initially thought that TJ was only receiving radiation to his chest area but we have since come to learn that they will be targeting three areas; His neck, heart and chest. We were told that they wanted to target all the areas that he had cancer in at the beginning of his cancer diagnosis to minimise the risk of it coming back again in any of those areas. TJ will be receiving EBRT ( External Beam Radiation Therapy) EBRT tightly targets radiation beams at the cancer from outside the body. The radiation oncology team controls the radiation machine to generate and direct the radiation beams to the designated area’s. TJ had CT imaging to map out where the radiation will be targeting his body. This included three tiny tattoos the size of a freckle. I was expecting them to pull out a tattoo gun to do the tattoo but it turned out to be just a drop of ink and basically a pin. Nothing to it! TJ will be receiving 14 days of radiation (not including weekends) Each session will take about 10-20 minutes. This includes helping TJ to get into the correct position for radiation. We have been told that it won’t hurt, it won’t make him radioactive and that he won’t turn into the Hulk or gain any superpowers. Darn! ;) Of course with anything there comes risks and it’s definitely something that you need to take seriously when deciding if you want to go ahead with radiation or not.
For us, we believe that the benefit outweighs the risks- we want to minimise the risk of the cancer reoccurring later in life. We are aware that radiation can also cause cancer but if you don’t have radiation you have a higher chance of it coming back. It’s a catch 22! :( Nonetheless here are some of the possible side effects associated with radiation to his targeted area’s; Short Term:
Long Term:
And the most scariest side effect: Secondary Cancer (As a result of having Radiation as mentioned above) I should also mention that TJ is still taking the medication- Bactrim and will do so until about 3 weeks after radiation treatment ends. Bactrim is used to treat infections as well as prevent them. Have you had radiation before? Did you suffer any side effects as a result from it? Please feel free to comment below with your radiation experience.
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AuthorHi, I'm Tj's Mum; Zoie All Blog Entries
August 2018
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