Hi Joel,

I had similar hair loss and radiation burns.

It was explained to me as follows:

As you know, the machine moves so that it shoots the radiation from the front, sides and back of your body - and the radiation doesn't just stop within the body, it travels into the front then out the back, into one side and out the other, into the back then out the front. Hence a lot of radiation damage to various parts around the head.

Also, the targetting is not standard, since the location of everyone's tumors is different. The RO mapped out the radiation field based on the location of my tumors, as well as covering the opposite side of my lower jaw and neck (where I did not have any tumors) as a precautionary measure. The dosing was also different on both sides (the tumor side got about 4 more doses).

Best wishes,

Chris