Ok, well I am one week from my first radiation treatment. I was fitted for my mask at the end of last week. Ok, so who can tell me what to expect on my first treatment, procedure wise and pain wise??? I plan on driving myself. Is that ok? I am a single guy here and am trying not to rely to heavily on my parents just yet.

Andy

Elocia,
You will never feel pain directly during radiation treatment. During and following your first treatment, in fact, you won't feel a thing. The effects of the radiation are cumulative and take a while before the side effects begin to be noticed. After two or three weeks I began to have swallowing difficulties and the burn on the skin began to become apparent after about three weeks if I remember correctly. Sometime around the three week mark, I got my PEG tube. Although the radiation eventually takes its toll, you don't feel pain from the rays when receiving it, so don't fear being on the table.

Secondly, I was also single when I was going through radiation and almost always drove myself to and from MDACC. They are nice enough to provide free convenient valet parking for radiation patients. I did have people available to drive me and did take advantage of it a few times. By that time I was on duralgesic pain patches which caused me to doze off a little. However, for the most part I had no trouble driving the one-half hour back and forth from the medical center to my home.

Best of luck...

Danny G.

Andy,

You are about to begin the long journey, but it really is not that long. Keep a positive attitude and all will be just fine.

I just recently completed my treatments a couple weeks ago. I drove myself to every single treatment, all 40. There really is not much to the treatment that you did not go through during the simulation when they made the mask.

The biggest difference is that the time it takes will be only minutes for the actual treatments, perhaps ten at most for the majority of them. The only difference will be when they take x-rays later in the process and that will consume a bit more time, but not much. I would guess that the longest that any of my treatments took might have been fifteen minutes.

In my case, I saw my RO once a week after treatment. I also saw the nurse for a scheduled appointment one day, though they were available to see daily, and a dietition on another day.

I wish great things for you as you begin your treatment. I, and all the others are here to help if you have any other concerns or questions.

Bill

Andy --

You may need to have someone drive you about 4 weeks or so into th treatment, depending on whether you are on serious pain-killers by then and how you react to these. Some people can continue driving when taking Oxycodone or while on Duragesic patch, many cannot (safely, that is).

Also, if you are getting amiphostine, you may have nausea afterwards which makes driving oneself difficult. Are you getting concurrent chemotherapy? You may need someone to drive home afterwards; my husband was a bit out of it on chemo days (afterwards). He would drive the 45 minutes to Baltimore and I would drive the hour back (difference due to rush hour in afternoon!)

Good luck
Gail

Andy,

I also drove myself to and from treatment all the way through -- in my case it was no more than a half-hour each way (it was actually on my way home from work) and I wasn't on really heavy-duty painkillers. Also, I didn't have chemo, which could make a difference.

It may turn out that you can drive yourself, but I'd suggest you have a backup plan just in case you need it at some point.

Cathy

Thanks everyone for the above information. I have to have 35 radiation treatments, and 3 chemo (cisplatin) treatments, on day 2, then 3 weeks later, then another 3 weeks. I was figuring on the chemo days, I would get a ride both ways, and the radiation days I would try to drive myself. Yes, I am opting for the amiphostine, so I will see how that goes. I plan on taking an Ativan for anxiety before and a compazine for the nausea of the amiphostine. Lets hope this all helps......

Andy

i had no chemo so it may be differant three or four weeks in , but i drove myself to all 30 treatments. this also could change if you don't have IMRT. my side effects were not too bad, lack of saliva, loss of taste and felt like i had strep throat for last two weeks of treatment and 10 days after they were over. keep your head up and a positive attitude and you will do well. mo

The first 2 weeks you really don't feel anything. The last 2 weeks are hard. I felt worse the 2 weeks after the radiation stopped. I drove my self through the entire treatment and worked through the entire treatement only taking shorter days at work the last 4 weeks. The hardest issue is eating after 2 weeks. Go for soft non acidic foods and if that fails do 2000+ calaries of boost or ensure the liquid suppliments. Good luck and hang in there, it was the fastest 6 weeks of my life so that was good.

Andy,
Just to point out the darker side. I had "just" 2 cisplatin and 35 IMRT and about 3 weeks into it was sick as a dog. I lost so much weight that I had to be driven to radiation (a 60 mile trip through Bay area traffic) and was pretty much disabled and unable to work for almost 2 years. I was also on 75mg's of Duragesic and morphine tablets for breakthrough pain. Did I mention that I was very healthy going into it, didn't drink or smoke and the techs thought that I weathered things pretty well.

Hopefully your experience won't be so extreme, we all respond differently to trwatment.

Andy,
Like other posters, I managed to drive for treatment in the first 2 weeks and I started taking painkillers at the same time even though the pain was very slight in the beginning. My dosage was heavier than Gary's with 4 rounds of cisplatin and 48 sessions of radiation (conventional one). Fatigue was serious when I stepped into the third week and I had to take a taxi to the hospital. I could still go there alone because I didn't want my husband to stay away from his job and all my relatives lived rather far away from me. But about 6 weeks after treatment started, the condition became so bad that I was admitted to hospital for treatment. It was a scary time but I managed to overcome it soon. Take care,
Karen