Radiation Oncology
October 3, 2008 - This past Friday, we felt the appointments (plural because we saw about 8 different people besides the oncology doctor!) went well. The day was very draining for both Wes and myself and there were many times I thought that I would go into information overload. They performed a number of physical and mental tests on Wes and were pleased that he was still showing no symptoms in regard to the tumour. The doctor decided to begin cutting back on one of the meds that Wes was currently on, he wanted Wes to be off of the brain swelling medication before he started his radiation and chemo. If at any point Wes would experience headaches or pressure than he would have to go back on them, but we were hoping that everything would stay as good as it had been. Either way, we were happy with cutting back any one of the meds.
The nurse, who must have been new there, was asked to take out Wes' staples. Her hands were shaking so badly that Wes was the one who was trying to encourage and comfort her. Then of course the last staple broke apart and there was only about an 1/8th of an inch sticking out and I had no idea how she was going to grab a hold of that small piece, but Wes positioned himself so that she would have better access to the staple and after telling her again, 'It's no problem, it doesn't hurt.' she was finally able to pull out the last bit of staple. I loved watching the gentle way that Wes was with her, even the social worker stopped talking (which I'm sure was not easy for her) just to watch the interaction.
There was a social worker that was present during some of the appointments and though I was a bit wary of the necessity of this portion of the meetings I listened to what she had to say and found that a good portion of it was fairly useful. I tried to share with her how our faith, family and friends would be there for us and had been there already for us in so many ways, but that's not really something she wanted to discuss any further.
We have to go back this coming Wednesday, October 8 at 10:00a.m. to meet with Danica our clinical pharmacist, because they ran out of time for everyone to see us and so that is the day she will be explaining in more detail about the chemo. So far all we know is that they will be doing the radiation simultaneously with the chemo. The radiation will be for 33 sessions, 5 days a week. So that means driving into the city for a ½ hour to 1 hour treatment, but that doesn’t seem too bad to us. We have talked about moving in with Nicolas, who lives only about 10 minutes from HSC, during the week and then come home for the weekends.
Though we joke about so many things we realize that this next portion of our life will be a challenge, praying that the radiation will do what it needs to do and that they will not destroy too many of the healthy brain cells. We are not worried so much about Wes' reaction of the medication but the end results of the treatments.
"Now may the Lord's strength be displayed, just as you have declared" Numbers 14:17
The nurse, who must have been new there, was asked to take out Wes' staples. Her hands were shaking so badly that Wes was the one who was trying to encourage and comfort her. Then of course the last staple broke apart and there was only about an 1/8th of an inch sticking out and I had no idea how she was going to grab a hold of that small piece, but Wes positioned himself so that she would have better access to the staple and after telling her again, 'It's no problem, it doesn't hurt.' she was finally able to pull out the last bit of staple. I loved watching the gentle way that Wes was with her, even the social worker stopped talking (which I'm sure was not easy for her) just to watch the interaction.
There was a social worker that was present during some of the appointments and though I was a bit wary of the necessity of this portion of the meetings I listened to what she had to say and found that a good portion of it was fairly useful. I tried to share with her how our faith, family and friends would be there for us and had been there already for us in so many ways, but that's not really something she wanted to discuss any further.
We have to go back this coming Wednesday, October 8 at 10:00a.m. to meet with Danica our clinical pharmacist, because they ran out of time for everyone to see us and so that is the day she will be explaining in more detail about the chemo. So far all we know is that they will be doing the radiation simultaneously with the chemo. The radiation will be for 33 sessions, 5 days a week. So that means driving into the city for a ½ hour to 1 hour treatment, but that doesn’t seem too bad to us. We have talked about moving in with Nicolas, who lives only about 10 minutes from HSC, during the week and then come home for the weekends.
Though we joke about so many things we realize that this next portion of our life will be a challenge, praying that the radiation will do what it needs to do and that they will not destroy too many of the healthy brain cells. We are not worried so much about Wes' reaction of the medication but the end results of the treatments.
"Now may the Lord's strength be displayed, just as you have declared" Numbers 14:17
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