Sunday, October 25, 2009
Modified radical neck dissection
I'm home. After eight hours of surgery and three days in the hospital, it is good to be home.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
CyberKnife treatment
Last Friday, I finished my CyberKnife treatments for residual nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Each treatment was one hour and fifteen minutes for a total of five treatments in five consecutive days. I had to be perfectly still with my radiation mask on, although you are allowed to bring in your own music which really helps. That probably was the hardest part of the treatment, being still. I had absolutely no side effects until the fourth day or so with a slight headache and a bit of dizziness.
Total treatment was 40 Gy. My first round of radiation treatments with IMRT was 70.2 Gy. I think I should glow in the dark by now. But CyberKnife is amazing in that it doesn't hit much of the surrounding good tissue with much of any radiation, unlike IMRT, and the radiation comes into your body at between 100 and 250 different angles.
Yesterday, four days post-treatment, my nasopharynx started feeling pretty raw. It now hurts like the worse sore throat you have ever experienced times ten! But compared to the effects of IMRT, this is nothing. I can still taste food, and I have some saliva.
Neck dissection surgery will be in two weeks. The positive lymph node in my right neck is already slowly getting bigger. I cannot wait to get it out. After surgery, we will probably be doing more chemo just to make sure we got everything. Fun!
What a crazy journey, but I'm not going to let cancer win.
Total treatment was 40 Gy. My first round of radiation treatments with IMRT was 70.2 Gy. I think I should glow in the dark by now. But CyberKnife is amazing in that it doesn't hit much of the surrounding good tissue with much of any radiation, unlike IMRT, and the radiation comes into your body at between 100 and 250 different angles.
Yesterday, four days post-treatment, my nasopharynx started feeling pretty raw. It now hurts like the worse sore throat you have ever experienced times ten! But compared to the effects of IMRT, this is nothing. I can still taste food, and I have some saliva.
Neck dissection surgery will be in two weeks. The positive lymph node in my right neck is already slowly getting bigger. I cannot wait to get it out. After surgery, we will probably be doing more chemo just to make sure we got everything. Fun!
What a crazy journey, but I'm not going to let cancer win.
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