Hi Stephany,
I never once drove myself to radiation treatment. I know that some have and even gone after work (or even held a job while going through this!). Not me - towards the end I slept both ways on the trip. It would take all morning just to work up to leaving the house. And I had IMRT the "kinder, gentler" radiation. We had a 60 mile drive to UCSF every day. After the first couple of weeks I was too sick, too medicated and weak to even think about driving myself. My wife was my primary driver and I had several other relief drivers. Once a week they would take alignment xrays and I would also see the doctor (radiation oncologist) and usually the nutritionist also, usually not on the same day. They also took a CT scan in mid process to fine tune the software programming and check the progress. We always had late morning or early afternoon appointments which mitigated the commute issues. They were terrific about trying to accomodate our schedule.

Why they didn't suggest radiation for your mother initially also is anybody's guess. There are some here who have had recurrences who were treated by surgery alone and suspect that lack of "prophylactic" radiation was the cause. Second guessing (and I MEAN guessing) it would be very hard on the graphs and reconstructive surgery to radiate it, so they must have considered the "risk/benefit" at the time, especially if it was a low staging initially.

Radiation was a very difficult and demanding treatment protocol and the decision to utilize it is a very difficult one. Radiation is one of those interesting paradoxes in medicine. Radiation can cause cancer yet it is also used to treat cancer.

Essentially the doctors revealed to me their entire bag of tricks and it was up to me to choose the appropriate treatment plan (with their input of course). I opted to go with radiation and chemo only. I could have had a 14 hour surgery also. Some have said that the 1-2-3 punch is the best and most efficacious - slash, burn & poison. The science is not quite there yet with a definitive answer. I will second guess that decision forever (especially if I have a recurrence). One would think that if a cancer is well differentiated and focally invasive (and a low staging) that surgery alone would be efficacious. (I'm still second guessing how I got the damned thing to begin with!) It was a year ago this coming Wednesday that I had my first radiation treatment and I still have lingering side effects. It took a good 6-9 months post treatment to get back to 90% of what I used to be.

It goes without saying that, like anything else, your chances for survival are improved when going to a facility that specializes in this kind of treatment and patient management. I deliberately sought out an NCCN comprehensive cancer center for treatment (there is something like 17 of these in the US) where they have an entire hospital wing (or even the entire hospital like MD Anderson or Memorial Sloan Kettering) that is dedicated to cancer treatment and follows the latest state of the art treatment protocols (most also offer "clinical trials" with the latest experimental treatment protocols). They network and share information.

In fighting this disease, treatment and diagnosis mistakes are never good options. I have personally known people who chose lesser facilities for "convenience" and it has cost them their life. Like many other things in life, one has to be "willing to go to any lengths" in the battle.

Statistically, we all fear recurrence - it's really a 50-50 chance in the late stages. People who have "done everything right" have had recurrences. Only God knows the real answers to this...