| | Joined: Sep 2006 Posts: 8,311 Senior Patient Advocate Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) |  Senior Patient Advocate Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Sep 2006 Posts: 8,311 | I was told at the beg of my rad to expect some breakdowns but I guess I was lucky as I didn't experience any.
David
Age 58 at Dx, HPV16+ SCC, Stage IV BOT+2 nodes, non smoker, casual drinker, exercise nut, Cisplatin x 3 & concurrent IMRT x 35,(70 Gy), no surgery, no Peg, Tx at Moffitt over Aug 06. Jun 07, back to riding my bike 100 miles a wk. Now doing 12 Spin classes and 60 outdoor miles per wk. Nov 13 completed Hilly Century ride for Cancer, 104 miles, 1st Place in my age group. Apr 2014 & 15, Spun for 9 straight hrs to raise $$ for YMCA's Livestrong Program. Certified Spin Instructor Jun 2014.
| | | | | Joined: Nov 2005 Posts: 1,128 Patient Advocate (1000+ posts) | | Patient Advocate (1000+ posts)
Joined: Nov 2005 Posts: 1,128 | Breakdowns aren't limited to just IMRT machines. I had conventional radiation and the machine broke down several times, but the sessions were made up.
Age 67 1/2
Ventral Tongue SCC T2N0M0G1 10/05
Anterior Tongue SCC T2N0M0G2 6/08
Base of Tongue SCC T2N0M0G2 12/08
Three partial glossectomy (10/05,11/05,6/08), PEG, 37 XRT 66.6 Gy 1/06
Neck dissection, trach, PEG & forearm free flap (6/08)
Total glossectomy, trach, PEG & thigh free flap (12/08)
On August 21, 2010 at 9:20 am, Pete went off to play with the ratties in the sky.
| | | | | Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 1,004 Patient Advocate (1000+ posts) | | Patient Advocate (1000+ posts)
Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 1,004 | Man...that sounds like a real pain.....you just want to get it and get it over with and you have to put up with that too? It's like them saying "we want you to wait just a little longer before we do this" I really hate all that waiting....can you tell?
Hope this doesn't happen too much more!!
Suzanne
***********
T1 SCC on right side of tongue
Age 31...27 when diagnosed
4 partial glossectomies
No chemo or radiation
Biopsy on 2/2/10-Clear
Surgery needed again...no later than April 2011
Loving life and just became a mother on 11/25/10
It's not what we CAN'T do..it's what we CAN do:)
| | | | | Joined: Jul 2009 Posts: 31 Contributing Member (25+ posts) | | OP Contributing Member (25+ posts)
Joined: Jul 2009 Posts: 31 | I was really depressed yesterday after the breakdown. Just kind of lost it, thinking, man I'm trying to stay alive here and you morons can't keep a machine running. Then I read that with prostrate cancer it can decrease effectiveness. Asked the Doc today and he said not to worry, no decrease in effectiveness. Just wish I could totally trust him. Anyway all of your responses put my mind at ease. Thanks. Machine fixed and I'm back on the road.
Rick
Age 50 at DX July 13 2009. T1N2BMO, stage III BOT-2 nodes right side, HPV negative, drinker-smoker, cisplatin x 3 IMRT x 39 70 GY, pegged and ported. Started treatment on 8-3 2009. Selective neck disection 11/30/2009, 9 nodes removed-neg pathology
| | | | | Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 718 "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts) | | "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts)
Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 718 | Argghhh!! I HATE machine problems. On a day when my husband was not doing well, we drove 45 minutes to the hospital...waited (because they were NEVER on time) for another 45 minutes and just before he was supposed to go in for his treatment there was an electrical problem. Electricity was quickly restored but the communication between the equipment and the operator console was not. We waited 2 hours more for the issue to be resolved and then we were told to go home. I was not a happy camper!
I think it is ok to miss a treatment here and there. Our hospital doesn't treat on holidays so Dan had 2 missed the electrical day and July 4th during treatment.
I hope they have resolved the problems w/ the equipment and that you can get through the remaining ones w/out delay so you can focus on recovery.
Margaret
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C/G: Husband, 48 (at time of dx)
Dx 5/18/07 SCC, BOT, lymph node involvement. T1N2BM0. (Stage 4a, G2/3)
Tx 6/18 - 8/3/07, IMRT x 33 Cisplatin x3 (stopped after 1st dose due to hearing issues). Weekly Erbitux started 6/27/07 completed 8/6/07.
| | | | | Joined: Jul 2008 Posts: 507 "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts) | | "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts)
Joined: Jul 2008 Posts: 507 | I had the Tomo machine break down while I was in it. They are like MRI/CT scanners and all of a sudden everything shutdown, went quiet, then dark.
As I recall, it was still just in the scan phase when it went down. They pulled me out, then in about a half hour got it running again and started over.
It is the only Tomo machine in San Diego and I never asked in event it really broke-down if they could switch me to one of the Varian IMRT units.
They told me except for weekends and holidays they didn't want any unavoidable breaks in treatments. Since I wasn't given Chemo, maybe the reason was that they were relying only on the Tomo to knock down the cancer cells and keep them from multiplying.
Nevertheless, one day during my last week they couldn't treat me because I was throwing up so bad -- hours later they gave up and sent me home with several bottles of Zofan.
It was my last week and I was in boost so they said the delay wouldn't matter any more.
Don
TXN2bM0 Stage IVa SCC-Occult Primary
FNA 6/6/08-SCC in node<2cm
PET/CT 6/19/08-SCC in 2nd node<1cm
HiRes CT 6/21/08
Exploratory,Tonsillectomy(benign),Right SND 6/23/08
PEG 7/3/08-11/6/08
35 TomoTherapy 7/16/08-9/04/08 No Chemo
Clear PET/CT 11/15/08, 5/15/09, 5/28/10, 7/8/11
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