My husband is having his last of his 43 XRT's on Monday. Yeah...I guess. I know what still lays ahead but at least psychologically it will feel some what of an end to it. He has been severely depressed and doesn't talk unless he has to. The doctor put him on Selexa. an antidepressant, but it will be a good month before that kicks in. But he will be needing it for a while so it will be worth the wait. If and when we get good news from our scans, when will he be able to go out job searching? It seems like alot of people are out of work for as long as 2 years? Also, when will they run the scans? He's done Monday May 8th. I've heard a different number of weeks on this. Of course I'm anxious to get them and hear some good news to lift my husbands spirits. This treatment is more than any human being should have to endure....I also took everyones advice on the Social Security so that will help. My husband has always made a great living running his own business which he was working on selling and finding a new career when the diagnosis was made, so its been a double whammy. Were going to have to adjust to a new lifestyle, but if he comes out of this healthy I know thats all that matters. Any one know when well get those scans so we can get on the path to recovery?

All My Best Kerry

I don't think there is a steadfast rule between ENT physicians regarding scans. Your journey with oncologist's is over, as a rule. Your ENT will determine if you need a scan. Good luck....
Darrell

You mean the oncologists don't run scans to see if the treatment worked? That doesnt sound right..

Our experience was just the opposite. The radiation oncologist was the one that ordered the scans, not the ENT. My husband had his first post treatment CT scan 3 months after treatment ended.

Can you call the radiation oncologist and ask him when he will want to do the first scan? Our RO was great about answering any questions. I had his email address and I would send him questions and he would respond with very detailed replies.

Congratulations on beign almost through with the radiation - that is a great milestone.

Anita

I think it varies who will order followup scans. For me, it was my ENT. At any rate, I think for most people, the earliest they get a scan is 3 months after treatment ends because before then there is so much inflamation and swelling from the effects of radiation there is too much "noise" from that.

Nelie

My husband just began his radiation treatments last week. He will be receiving 16 neutron beam treatments over a four-week period. Not sure if scans are done differently for that type of radiation, but we were told his first set of scans will be four months after tx ends.

Best of luck to you,
Kristie

My husband had his last radiation treatment February 23rd. His RO is his main doctor right now and is the doctor that is scheduling his scans, which will be done in June. Leon sees his RO once a month. He has seen his ENT twice since the end of treatment and is not scheduled to see the ENT again until June, so I would say right now he is seeing his ENT every 2 months. The ENT was going to order the scans, but we told him the RO had that covered. He said good, just make sure that he gets sent a copy of the scan results also. Also, he gets scoped everytime he sees one or the other of the doctors.

Kerry,
My experience was that my oncologist was the primary care doc for the first entire year. He ordered all of the initial scans, managed all of my medications and also responded to requests from the RO (since she was from a different provider). For the first 6 months I saw all 3 docs every 6 weeks. My H&N surgeon gave me the most frequent exams, and still does. Most ENT's and H&N surgeons don't order scans as a rule. My RO and MO are still the ones to do that and I see them semiannually at this point. The RO (who is also at a major CCC is still the most thorough of all of them and usually I see a few student doctors as well).

Don't be in a hurry to get get scans early in the process - they usually indicate many false positives due to healing tissue. They aren't the "path" to recovery that one would think - it's all about when you think less about cancer and more about real life. It's about when you can go ouside and prune more than one shrub at a time because you're starting to get your strength back. I too am self employed and it was very tough going for a while - even with preplanning and a large ELOC on the house.

Unfortunately, there will be no immediate response to the end of his radiation Tx, in fact, it will get worse for possibly as long as 2 months. He may feel even worse because nothing is actively being done to fight the disease. Then his progress will be measured in 3 week intervals for a time. Figure 1 month of recovery to each week of radiation.

This is a VERY slow process from a brutal treatment. It requires great patience and probably anti-depressants as well - it is good that they have him started on something. They could "bridge" it with Xanax or something faster acting until it kicks in.

One day at a time.