I look forward to a couple of months from now when I have something other than breast cancer on my mind. Or at least something else that’s top of mind, even if this remains an ongoing thread in my life.
Yesterday I met with the radiology oncologist (RO) for the consult. During that appointment, we talked through what’s happened so far and I let her know that I was probably not going to take the endocrine meds my medical oncologist recommended. I thought that decision might influence what she recommended for my radiation treatment, and it did. Originally she’d been leaning toward 16 treatments and now I’ll have 20.
Then she did what she called mapping. I was on a flat (hard!) table with a CT scanner but not a typical one (couldn’t tell you what the difference is just know that it’s different because the RO told me that). She and the nurse put stickers on various places on my chest, then circled my left breast with a thin, flexible wire. Finally the nurse drew on me with a Sharpie to line everything up—the room has lasers sort of like laser levels you’d use at home instead of a plumb line. That way, my body is lined up exactly as it needs to be every time.
Because the cancer is in my left breast, my heart will be exposed to radiation which can be a Very Bad Thing. So I’ll need to do what’s called deep inspiration breath hold. Basically, when you take a deep breath using your ribs and not going just from the belly, that moves your heart just a little bit out of the way of the radiation. You can read about cancer-associated heart disease here.
Of course, I’m a snowflake so this may not be something that helps me. Years ago, I was diagnosed with what sounded like a heart murmur, but an echocardiogram showed that my heart is close to the wall of my chest. When my heart beats sometimes there’s an echo that sounds a lot like a murmur. So my heart may be too close to the wall of my chest to be helped by holding my breath. I'll find out more next week.
Anyway, I had a couple of CT scans, breathing normally. Then I had a scan where I had to do that deep inspiration breathing, and I held my breath for the whole scan. Once that was done, the nurse came in and gave me three teeny tiny (hardly worthy of the name) tattoos. Basically, they are each one dot—left side even with my breast and under my arm, on my breast bone, and right side even with my breast and under my arm. I will have to remember to mention them to my dermatologist when I have my next post-melanoma scan.
I did think of one additional question for my RO after we left. I have a small pleural effusion on the left lung, which of course is the side that will get the radiation. So I’ve called and left a message to mention that and see how/if that impacts treatment. More to come . . .
Now the RO is building the model for my treatment, and I should get my appointments (I hope) by tomorrow since we’re aiming to start on Monday.
Yesterday I met with the radiology oncologist (RO) for the consult. During that appointment, we talked through what’s happened so far and I let her know that I was probably not going to take the endocrine meds my medical oncologist recommended. I thought that decision might influence what she recommended for my radiation treatment, and it did. Originally she’d been leaning toward 16 treatments and now I’ll have 20.
Then she did what she called mapping. I was on a flat (hard!) table with a CT scanner but not a typical one (couldn’t tell you what the difference is just know that it’s different because the RO told me that). She and the nurse put stickers on various places on my chest, then circled my left breast with a thin, flexible wire. Finally the nurse drew on me with a Sharpie to line everything up—the room has lasers sort of like laser levels you’d use at home instead of a plumb line. That way, my body is lined up exactly as it needs to be every time.
Because the cancer is in my left breast, my heart will be exposed to radiation which can be a Very Bad Thing. So I’ll need to do what’s called deep inspiration breath hold. Basically, when you take a deep breath using your ribs and not going just from the belly, that moves your heart just a little bit out of the way of the radiation. You can read about cancer-associated heart disease here.
Of course, I’m a snowflake so this may not be something that helps me. Years ago, I was diagnosed with what sounded like a heart murmur, but an echocardiogram showed that my heart is close to the wall of my chest. When my heart beats sometimes there’s an echo that sounds a lot like a murmur. So my heart may be too close to the wall of my chest to be helped by holding my breath. I'll find out more next week.
Anyway, I had a couple of CT scans, breathing normally. Then I had a scan where I had to do that deep inspiration breathing, and I held my breath for the whole scan. Once that was done, the nurse came in and gave me three teeny tiny (hardly worthy of the name) tattoos. Basically, they are each one dot—left side even with my breast and under my arm, on my breast bone, and right side even with my breast and under my arm. I will have to remember to mention them to my dermatologist when I have my next post-melanoma scan.
I did think of one additional question for my RO after we left. I have a small pleural effusion on the left lung, which of course is the side that will get the radiation. So I’ve called and left a message to mention that and see how/if that impacts treatment. More to come . . .
Now the RO is building the model for my treatment, and I should get my appointments (I hope) by tomorrow since we’re aiming to start on Monday.
1 comment:
Good song title!
Post a Comment