Moving Onto Radiation

I saw my oncologist last week and we decided that since the chemotherapy wasn't making anymore difference to the tumour, we are moving onto radiation. I had a ct scan done earlier this week in preparation for radiation and had received a call today for radiation on Monday morning. Radiation will be everyday for 5 1/2 weeks, excluding weekends and holidays. The appointment times will change daily, depending on doctors' schedules. I will be seen by a radiation oncologist once a week during the treatment to check my progress. Side effects will mostly be fatigue and soreness to the skin. I ordered some fancy radiation cream online so I hope this will deter any nasty side effects.

So is this good news or bad news? Well, it's neither. However, after reading some forums online, this is common protocol to change treatments. Many patients don't react positively to a particular type of treatment whether it be chemo, hormone therapy, or other drugs, so they will try something else. There are many types of breast cancer out there and although they have standard forms of treatment for the types they know, nothing is guaranteed.

Radiation is a more targeted approach because it zaps the tumour and nearby lymph nodes directly and works to eliminate the cancer cells at the source, rather than the chemo which works to kill cancer cells that could be floating in your body. Even though this particular chemo drug didn't do any major damage to the tumour, it could have still been eliminating other cancer cells that were not detectable by scans (scans can only detect clusters of cancer cells). I am looking forward to the next phase of treatment because if something's not working, I'm ready to move on.

I have a bone and ct scan scheduled for end of May but I might take matter into my own hands and go to a private clinic to get a PET scan which only has a 3 day wait. A PET scan gives a much more detailed picture of where cancer is in your body. To get an update on my status asap would be beneficial since this would give me the confidence to go ahead with radiation if the scan came out well. If the scan showed the cancer has spread, I would rather change the treatment plan now before getting too far along into radiation. Here's more information on PET scans if you're interested: http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/testing/types/pet.jsp

The good news is that my hair can start growing back! I can already see the peach fuzz! 

Love, J