Radiation Exposure

sandysp

sandysp said:

Biopsy

I am sorry to hear MSK would not take your insurance and this surprises me actually. They have been so good working with my insurer. It hasn't always been an easy road for them either working with my insurer either. They also seem to take Medicaire and Medicaid.

I credit radiation for saving my life.

If my blood tests had come back better, I doubt they would have ordered the scan in September. It wasn't until after the blood tests came back that they ordered the scan. But it doesn't bother me to have the scan since after all the radiation I had, it seems like small potatoes.

I am so sorry you had to dismiss your oncologists. How stressful.

My GI was very ignorant when it came to anal cancer and gave very bad advice. He understands the protocol now. I was his first anal cancer patient. My Oncologist specialised in GI cancers so I was very lucky.

Good luck to you.

All the best,

Sandy

 

CO2 levels

I have a spot on my lung and elevated Carbon Dioxide levels along with a couple of other problems with the blood tests. I guess this is why I have to have the scan. 

Angela_K

Partnering with your doctor

After reading this I cancelled my 6th month CT check up but followed through with my appt with radiation onc to discuss.  (I travel over 200 mi to see my treatment team.)  She and I decided together to have pelvic/abdomen CT and chest x-ray once a year and to continue to have the anascopes with my surgeon onc every 6 months til the 5 year mark. She felt that this was perfect for me and  I feel really good about that.  I appreciate she was willing to LISTEN.  (She did end the visit with a DRE.  Her resident joined in, too.  I love that my butt can teach. )

Thanks, Martha, for starting this thread.  I've learned a lot.

 

mp327

Angela_K said:

Partnering with your doctor

After reading this I cancelled my 6th month CT check up but followed through with my appt with radiation onc to discuss.  (I travel over 200 mi to see my treatment team.)  She and I decided together to have pelvic/abdomen CT and chest x-ray once a year and to continue to have the anascopes with my surgeon onc every 6 months til the 5 year mark. She felt that this was perfect for me and  I feel really good about that.  I appreciate she was willing to LISTEN.  (She did end the visit with a DRE.  Her resident joined in, too.  I love that my butt can teach. )

Thanks, Martha, for starting this thread.  I've learned a lot.

 

Angela

I'm glad you and others have found this info helpful.  It's good that you and your rad onc agreed on a 1x/year schedule for you on the scans.  I am due for another scan on June 3rd. and I am going to have the same discussion with my doc that you had with yours.  When should that last scan take place?--I'll be interested to hear what he says.  I don't want to keep this up and I will be hitting the 5-year mark in September.  I think I've had enough.

LaCh

sandysp said:

Biopsy

I am sorry to hear MSK would not take your insurance and this surprises me actually. They have been so good working with my insurer. It hasn't always been an easy road for them either working with my insurer either. They also seem to take Medicaire and Medicaid.

I credit radiation for saving my life.

If my blood tests had come back better, I doubt they would have ordered the scan in September. It wasn't until after the blood tests came back that they ordered the scan. But it doesn't bother me to have the scan since after all the radiation I had, it seems like small potatoes.

I am so sorry you had to dismiss your oncologists. How stressful.

My GI was very ignorant when it came to anal cancer and gave very bad advice. He understands the protocol now. I was his first anal cancer patient. My Oncologist specialised in GI cancers so I was very lucky.

Good luck to you.

All the best,

Sandy

 

sandysp

Hi Sandysp,

Well, I was sorry that MSK didn't take my insurance but it's all in the rear view mirror. It's in the past, so it doesn't affect me today. It wasn't stressful firing my oncolgists, it was a good day. My feeling was "problem solved." I consider the whole thing over, and now contend with the cure, rather than the disease. It's the cure that's causing my current problems and there's no remedy for those. In any case, a doctor is the LAST person I'd ask to help sort it out. They don't know the answers anyway, so it's no great loss. Western medicine works largely by suppression; hypertention is supressed with drugs, elevated cholesterol is suppressed with drugs, elevated blood sugar is supressed with drugs, tumors are suppressed with chemo and radiation (and whether one sees this as random chance or deliberate choice, the reality is that all these things are wildly lucrative for the companies doling out the drugs/treatments). No one looks for the root causes to address those. Anyway, I do what I can to feel as good as I can, with varying degrees of success and am content with that but my take on things in general is that what happens in the past is past. I don't think about it too much. 

sephie

sandysp said:

CO2 levels

I have a spot on my lung and elevated Carbon Dioxide levels along with a couple of other problems with the blood tests. I guess this is why I have to have the scan. 

elevated co2 levels

sandy,  i have always had elevated levels of co2 on every blood test done at mda ....they never address the issue...probably because my lungs are clear...there was something on one that they watch but it seems to stay the same so docs are not addressing the issue....  scans scans ,,,,they do really scare me and i had soooooo much radiation on my neck in the 70"s for skin cancer which now they do not do that for basil cell carcinomas....and i had radiation to my ears for infections in the 50's as a child....so they watch my thyroid now...medicine has changed a lot , thank heavens....and i worked as dental hygienist for years before we wore gloves, masks, etc...and i did not worry about radiation exposure too much... i am probably going to blow up in a few years....  ugh!!!!!    take care    hugs   sephie

Angela_K

Last scan

Dr. Thawani said if everything goes well she would skip the 4th year scan, scan in the 5th year and then decide from there.  I would continue the scopes for 5 years.  I hope your visit goes well. And contratulations on your recent race.  You and Orb are my favorite runners!

mp327

Angela_K said:

Last scan

Dr. Thawani said if everything goes well she would skip the 4th year scan, scan in the 5th year and then decide from there.  I would continue the scopes for 5 years.  I hope your visit goes well. And contratulations on your recent race.  You and Orb are my favorite runners!

Angela

That sounds like a good plan.  I think the scopes for 5 years is good too.  I'm not sure if my colorectal doc will keep me coming back for those after the 5-year mark or not.  I will find out in August.

Thanks for the congrats!  Orb and I picked a cold and rainy day to go racing, didn't we!

sandysp

mp327 said:

Angela

That sounds like a good plan.  I think the scopes for 5 years is good too.  I'm not sure if my colorectal doc will keep me coming back for those after the 5-year mark or not.  I will find out in August.

Thanks for the congrats!  Orb and I picked a cold and rainy day to go racing, didn't we!

Okay - big potatoes

Ha, ha! Big potatoes. Scans are big potatoes!I don't like radiation or any more than anyone here but apprecioate it as a stage 3 cancer sufferer, it saved my life. I am just in year two. I am going to follow the advice of my doctors at MSK when it comes to scans. They are very thoughtful as to what is needed. They don't just order needless stuff. I have thickening and a spot in the lower right lung. It got smaller since we started this, according to the last scan so hopefully it is gone now but since it was in my lymph glands, it could spread to the lung. We all know that is one of the areas for some unknown reason this cancer spreads to when things go ary. Early detection is a good idea. This was not my first cancer diagnosis. I will take my chances with necessary scans given according to protocol.

Sincerely,

Sandy

NYinTX

LaCh said:

sandysp

If you don't mind my asking, where do you live that you use MSK?  I live about 10 minutes walking distance from them but didn't use them because they don't accept my insurance (they were my first choice because of the close proximity). As for trusting my providers to do what's in my best interests....well, I envy you there. I have zero confidence that they know or will do what's in my best interests. Well, that's not entirely true. I trust my gastroenterologist. I fired my two oncologists as soon as treatments concluded and haven't seen either one of them since. And it was me who said No to any more diagnostics that use radiation.  I assume the tumor's gone. If it isn't, well, then it isn't.  I'll have a biopsy in a few months, not so that I'll know what to do medically but so that I'll simply know what to do. Go back to Spain, that sort of thing.  I'm done treating this (but really think that it's taken care of, in any case).

LaCH

so what I want to do -- go to Spain, 8 weeks post radiation/chemo; I have also decided that if this first treatment protocol did not take, then too bad for me, as i will not undergo another round or any possible surgery; further, I think it is unethical to not take insurance (because it doesn't reimburse sufficiently), and that this indicates that MDs/ hosp do not act in the best interests of the "patient"........I find that "trust" is another way of succumbing to the passive stance of "they know best", etc. And Sandy, amount of radiation from a whole body CAT scan is not insignificant....it can reactivate HPV cells to start their proliferation. I won't go through airport scanners anymore either.

LaCh

NYinTX said:

LaCH

so what I want to do -- go to Spain, 8 weeks post radiation/chemo; I have also decided that if this first treatment protocol did not take, then too bad for me, as i will not undergo another round or any possible surgery; further, I think it is unethical to not take insurance (because it doesn't reimburse sufficiently), and that this indicates that MDs/ hosp do not act in the best interests of the "patient"........I find that "trust" is another way of succumbing to the passive stance of "they know best", etc. And Sandy, amount of radiation from a whole body CAT scan is not insignificant....it can reactivate HPV cells to start their proliferation. I won't go through airport scanners anymore either.

NYinTX

Have you ever been to Spain? 

I remember a conversation that I had in 2011, the last time that I was in Spain. I was explaining to four of my gaping-mouthed friends about the health care system in this country. They were stupified. "You have to do WHAT?  You have to pay WHAT?  If they don't take your insurance then WHAT? What does take your insurance even mean?" Now, Spain has it's share of problems and MORE than it's share, with it's economy in ruin, a shocking, almost 50% unemployment rate among 18-25 year olds, people being evicted all over the country, government corruption so rampant, so common and so extreme that it makes America look like the home of angels, but my feeling is, no more treatments, no more radiation, no more doctors, no more bullcrap and if I find out that I still have cancer, it's back to Spain for me.  As an expat, I'd be less affected by the problems plaguing Spain than my friends in Spain are. If the cancer is still with me, I'll find out sooner or later and then I'll live whatever time I have left in the place that I love.  Everybody dies.  The point is, how do you live.  I agree with you. Placing trust in one's doctors, in western medicine, in the health care system of the United States, is all trust badly placed. Western Medicine is good at fixing broken things and not so good at fixing sick things. It's good at supressing symptoms (lowering blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, lowering stomach acid, damping your immune response when you have an immune response run amok and so on, but not good at addressing the underlying cause of the problem) it's good at isolating a problem and not so good at seeing the person as a whole.  The American health care system is a for profit system and this is and always will be in opposition to delivering affordable health care.  It's profit DRIVEN, not medically driven. We work hard to keep people sick rather than resolving problems, and this is also and extremely true of the phamarceutical companies. There are egregious conflicts of interest between doctors, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and consumers. Western medicine is excellent with technology but still practicing 19th century medicine in many ways.  It's way too cavalier with dangerous diagnostics. Simply because you can do a thing, doesn't mean that you should do a thing. Western medicine sees cause and effect, other modalities see it more as a cycle, one thing sets off another which feeds the first which perpetuates the cycle. Western medicine sees a line. Others see a circle. To address one thing and ignore another addresses nothing. I'm disgusted, frustrated and unwilling to trust in any of it any more (well, I never really did in the first place).  Spain is no panacea but the part of Spain that I go to is off the grid, isolated and beautiful. No one where I go--and I mean no one--speaks English and rather than miss is, I revel in being surrounded in Spanish. I speak the language, love the language and didn't miss English. The economy is in ruin and the euro is still worth a tad more than the dollar, but the part that I go to is so economically depressed that my American dollar would go 4 times as far.  Everyone dies. The question is, how do you live? 

For those who will have something disagreable to say, these ideas reflect my opinion. You can't argue with an opinion.

NYinTX

LaCh said:

NYinTX

Have you ever been to Spain? 

I remember a conversation that I had in 2011, the last time that I was in Spain. I was explaining to four of my gaping-mouthed friends about the health care system in this country. They were stupified. "You have to do WHAT?  You have to pay WHAT?  If they don't take your insurance then WHAT? What does take your insurance even mean?" Now, Spain has it's share of problems and MORE than it's share, with it's economy in ruin, a shocking, almost 50% unemployment rate among 18-25 year olds, people being evicted all over the country, government corruption so rampant, so common and so extreme that it makes America look like the home of angels, but my feeling is, no more treatments, no more radiation, no more doctors, no more bullcrap and if I find out that I still have cancer, it's back to Spain for me.  As an expat, I'd be less affected by the problems plaguing Spain than my friends in Spain are. If the cancer is still with me, I'll find out sooner or later and then I'll live whatever time I have left in the place that I love.  Everybody dies.  The point is, how do you live.  I agree with you. Placing trust in one's doctors, in western medicine, in the health care system of the United States, is all trust badly placed. Western Medicine is good at fixing broken things and not so good at fixing sick things. It's good at supressing symptoms (lowering blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, lowering stomach acid, damping your immune response when you have an immune response run amok and so on, but not good at addressing the underlying cause of the problem) it's good at isolating a problem and not so good at seeing the person as a whole.  The American health care system is a for profit system and this is and always will be in opposition to delivering affordable health care.  It's profit DRIVEN, not medically driven. We work hard to keep people sick rather than resolving problems, and this is also and extremely true of the phamarceutical companies. There are egregious conflicts of interest between doctors, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and consumers. Western medicine is excellent with technology but still practicing 19th century medicine in many ways.  It's way too cavalier with dangerous diagnostics. Simply because you can do a thing, doesn't mean that you should do a thing. Western medicine sees cause and effect, other modalities see it more as a cycle, one thing sets off another which feeds the first which perpetuates the cycle. Western medicine sees a line. Others see a circle. To address one thing and ignore another addresses nothing. I'm disgusted, frustrated and unwilling to trust in any of it any more (well, I never really did in the first place).  Spain is no panacea but the part of Spain that I go to is off the grid, isolated and beautiful. No one where I go--and I mean no one--speaks English and rather than miss is, I revel in being surrounded in Spanish. I speak the language, love the language and didn't miss English. The economy is in ruin and the euro is still worth a tad more than the dollar, but the part that I go to is so economically depressed that my American dollar would go 4 times as far.  Everyone dies. The question is, how do you live? 

For those who will have something disagreable to say, these ideas reflect my opinion. You can't argue with an opinion.

LaCH travels

I was born in Germany and returned for about 10 years when my husband was active duty. Freom Heidelberg we were able to travel all over Europe, E.Europe, but sadly did not make it to Spain, although we snowboarded a lot in Swiss and Italian Dolomites, I did visit Portugal, Greece, and Crete, and the Azores...I never wanted to return to the States in 2000, and would leave right now forever anywhere in Europe if I could. One of my remaining goals as soon as I get over this SCCA experience. 8 weeks post radiation and already dreaming of sunny shores of the Riviera...Spain sounds good. I would live in a tent if I had to....go for it. I lived in NYC for most of my life and just happened to be in TX when this SCCXA hit, otherwise would have gone to MSK, and if they would not have taken my military insurance (which most NY hosp do not), then I would have been in your position as well. What's great about this disease is that it has forced me to take a careful look at what I really want to do or not do......and then do it.....

LaCh

NYinTX said:

LaCH travels

I was born in Germany and returned for about 10 years when my husband was active duty. Freom Heidelberg we were able to travel all over Europe, E.Europe, but sadly did not make it to Spain, although we snowboarded a lot in Swiss and Italian Dolomites, I did visit Portugal, Greece, and Crete, and the Azores...I never wanted to return to the States in 2000, and would leave right now forever anywhere in Europe if I could. One of my remaining goals as soon as I get over this SCCA experience. 8 weeks post radiation and already dreaming of sunny shores of the Riviera...Spain sounds good. I would live in a tent if I had to....go for it. I lived in NYC for most of my life and just happened to be in TX when this SCCXA hit, otherwise would have gone to MSK, and if they would not have taken my military insurance (which most NY hosp do not), then I would have been in your position as well. What's great about this disease is that it has forced me to take a careful look at what I really want to do or not do......and then do it.....

NYinTX

Europe and europeans certainly have a different way of seeing, doing and thinking about things, from food to family to the work/life equation (they seem to work to live, while Americans seem to live to work.)  You should go back if you have the opportunity.  No one knows what the future holds, the good, the bad or anything in between.  I can't say that the cancer has changed the way that I see things. My feelings and priorities are what they were before but certainly, if I found out that I still had cancer, I'd DO things differently than I am now in terms of no longer needing to save money for my old age.  And yes, first priority would be to return to Spain.  And try to explain to a European living in a country with socialized medicine that I live 5 minutes on foot from one of the pre-eminent cancer centers in the world but because they "didn't accept my insurance," I couldn't be treated there... and that's pretty much ALL you have to say about health care in America.

sephie

LaCh said:

NYinTX

Europe and europeans certainly have a different way of seeing, doing and thinking about things, from food to family to the work/life equation (they seem to work to live, while Americans seem to live to work.)  You should go back if you have the opportunity.  No one knows what the future holds, the good, the bad or anything in between.  I can't say that the cancer has changed the way that I see things. My feelings and priorities are what they were before but certainly, if I found out that I still had cancer, I'd DO things differently than I am now in terms of no longer needing to save money for my old age.  And yes, first priority would be to return to Spain.  And try to explain to a European living in a country with socialized medicine that I live 5 minutes on foot from one of the pre-eminent cancer centers in the world but because they "didn't accept my insurance," I couldn't be treated there... and that's pretty much ALL you have to say about health care in America.

horrible

i am really mortified that MSK would not take your insurance   and for NYinTX that they would not take military insurance ....it is ok for someone to put their life on the line for us but our great hospital would not take their insurance....crazy..... i would love to go to Spain also and i will work on it....   got invited to go to tuscany but it would take 3 airplanes and a train ride with a group of really strong women... i still have too many issues ...get tired easily ...get sore...etc...and i would need help so i did not want to be a burden so i had to turn it down... i want to travel more thatn anything but have to do it my way.....  sephie

Marynb

sephie said:

horrible

i am really mortified that MSK would not take your insurance   and for NYinTX that they would not take military insurance ....it is ok for someone to put their life on the line for us but our great hospital would not take their insurance....crazy..... i would love to go to Spain also and i will work on it....   got invited to go to tuscany but it would take 3 airplanes and a train ride with a group of really strong women... i still have too many issues ...get tired easily ...get sore...etc...and i would need help so i did not want to be a burden so i had to turn it down... i want to travel more thatn anything but have to do it my way.....  sephie

Sephie

 What a great cat!  

LaCh

sephie said:

horrible

i am really mortified that MSK would not take your insurance   and for NYinTX that they would not take military insurance ....it is ok for someone to put their life on the line for us but our great hospital would not take their insurance....crazy..... i would love to go to Spain also and i will work on it....   got invited to go to tuscany but it would take 3 airplanes and a train ride with a group of really strong women... i still have too many issues ...get tired easily ...get sore...etc...and i would need help so i did not want to be a burden so i had to turn it down... i want to travel more thatn anything but have to do it my way.....  sephie

sephie

I didn't take it personally that MSK refused to accept my insurance, I took it as one more absurd, egregious, shameful symptom of our health care system, because at the end of the day, it ALL leads back to only one reason. Money.  In a profit-driven business model, which is what our health care system is, there's only one thing that dictates all things and that's money. My insurance didn't pay enough money and MSK doesn't participate for that reason. Obama's health care reform was health care INSURANCE reform.  It's still and only a for profit BUSINESS.  The MSK thing was just one more "thing" for me but I'm disgusted and completely fed up with it all, and I'm done with doctors, done with insurance, done with tests and treatments.  I'm ready to live and die in whatever way either unfolds. We all go sometime; I'd rather die calm and contented than pissed off and frustrated and the only way to avoid the latter is to avoid any more encounters with our medical system and those who are a part of it.  Whether or not I make it back to Spain remains to be seen. I have money and medical issues that make it somewhere difficult and extremely difficult. We'll see.  

sephie

LaCh said:

sephie

I didn't take it personally that MSK refused to accept my insurance, I took it as one more absurd, egregious, shameful symptom of our health care system, because at the end of the day, it ALL leads back to only one reason. Money.  In a profit-driven business model, which is what our health care system is, there's only one thing that dictates all things and that's money. My insurance didn't pay enough money and MSK doesn't participate for that reason. Obama's health care reform was health care INSURANCE reform.  It's still and only a for profit BUSINESS.  The MSK thing was just one more "thing" for me but I'm disgusted and completely fed up with it all, and I'm done with doctors, done with insurance, done with tests and treatments.  I'm ready to live and die in whatever way either unfolds. We all go sometime; I'd rather die calm and contented than pissed off and frustrated and the only way to avoid the latter is to avoid any more encounters with our medical system and those who are a part of it.  Whether or not I make it back to Spain remains to be seen. I have money and medical issues that make it somewhere difficult and extremely difficult. We'll see.  

lach

 i agree with a lot of what you have said...  back in 2009 when i was diagnosed  , i was not sure that i even wanted to do chemo and radiation.... i was hurting sooooooo badly just from the biopsy and bm's that i was ready to just let it run its course and go to Heaven ( i believe in God and always have )....i have no children but do have a hubby who asked me to try the treatment.    at that time, i had never heard of anyone who had this...then on the next day,  it came out that Farrah had it ....sooo  i watched her special on tv just looking for a few hints on how to help the pain....then saw that it came back on her and then saw her in the bed dying...that did not scare me because it seemed like the way to stop the pain....Now, i wish that i had asked more questions about the radiation.... i just was sooooooo tired and in so much pain that i just went thru all the steps of tx and let them guide me along....i do remember that some doc  at MDA told me that this tx radiation could possibly cause more cancers in the future but that this is the only tx that they knew of  and he said this tx is barbaric....sooooooooo we will see..... maybe we can keep letting people know how we are in 6 years then 8 then 10  then 15 then 20, and etc.....to help others.... i am 60 years old now and lost my younger brother to Diabetes when he was 47.... i think diabetes is worse...... on another note,  LaCh, if you get to go to spain , does your dog get to go.... i love alll animals but just have a fab cat at this time.... used to have the greates yellow lab but he passed last year.....i never got to take them on any trips..... thx for your input...  sephie

LaCh

sephie said:

lach

 i agree with a lot of what you have said...  back in 2009 when i was diagnosed  , i was not sure that i even wanted to do chemo and radiation.... i was hurting sooooooo badly just from the biopsy and bm's that i was ready to just let it run its course and go to Heaven ( i believe in God and always have )....i have no children but do have a hubby who asked me to try the treatment.    at that time, i had never heard of anyone who had this...then on the next day,  it came out that Farrah had it ....sooo  i watched her special on tv just looking for a few hints on how to help the pain....then saw that it came back on her and then saw her in the bed dying...that did not scare me because it seemed like the way to stop the pain....Now, i wish that i had asked more questions about the radiation.... i just was sooooooo tired and in so much pain that i just went thru all the steps of tx and let them guide me along....i do remember that some doc  at MDA told me that this tx radiation could possibly cause more cancers in the future but that this is the only tx that they knew of  and he said this tx is barbaric....sooooooooo we will see..... maybe we can keep letting people know how we are in 6 years then 8 then 10  then 15 then 20, and etc.....to help others.... i am 60 years old now and lost my younger brother to Diabetes when he was 47.... i think diabetes is worse...... on another note,  LaCh, if you get to go to spain , does your dog get to go.... i love alll animals but just have a fab cat at this time.... used to have the greates yellow lab but he passed last year.....i never got to take them on any trips..... thx for your input...  sephie

sephie

Hey Sephie,

You know, I hesitated to do the treatments too.  No one said to me, "Hey, you know what, this is barbaric but it's all we've got," and I would have greatly appreciated the honesty and it would have gome a very long way to building a bridge of trust, instrad of the deep, deep distrust that I have in the whole lot of 'em. That said, they didn't have to tell me because I already figured it was brutal and barbaric.  So do I regret my decision to have the thing treated?  I don't know.  I can't say that I do but I can't say that I don't. I'm almost 60 too and there are days that I feel more or less ready to die. When I got the diagnosis my only thought was--and is--for my dog.  I wouldn't love him more if he carried my DNA.

I'm sorry to hear about your brother... Losing a loved one is hard, unspeakably hard.  Part of my readiness to die has to do with someone I lost 7 years ago, and while I don't believe in god, I do believe that consciousness survives physical death, so that's part of my equation when I factor all things together. 

As for my dog and Spain, technically, yes, you can take a dog to Spain but I didn't and wouldn't, 1) because I went for 5 and 6 weeks respectively and wouldn't torture him with a plane trip for that amount of time and 2) I'd never put him in the cargo bay of a plane anyway, not unless they gave me an adjoining box alongside his...  just kidding. I'd never put him in cargo and he's too big to come in the cabin with me. But walking in the isolated mountains of Andalucía, I thought many, many times, "the only thing missing is him," and if he had been there with me, I probably never would have come back. to NY. Sadly and ironically, the friends who looked after him both times are now unable to do it again. My friend--the woman of the couple-- a friend I've known since I was a teen, has stage 3 pancreatic cancer. She was diagnosed 5 or 6 months before I was, but the cancer that she has is far, far worse.  In any case, I have no idea what I'd do with my dog but a trip to Spain is so far off that it's nothing I have to think about right now.  There are days when I think that I'll definitely make it back there and then there are just as many days when I think that I definitely won't. More immediate is a short trip I'm supposed to make with my cousin to celebrate our mutual 60th birthdays (same year, different month). We're thinking of September because it's off-season and cheaper but I have no idea what I'm going to do with my dog (meaning, who's going to look after him).  He's like an appendage; we're almost never apart and I'm not sure who has more separation anxiety, him or me, when we're apart.   

ina2525

LaCh said:

diagnostics vs theraputic

What I'd like to know is how much full body radiation there is during treatment. IMRT claims to use a narrow, focused beam with no radiation scatter (I asked before and during treatment). Then why is the treatment room below street level? Why do two-foot-thick lead doors slide shut during treatment, isolating patients inside and others outside? If there's no danger of scatter or of healthy, un targeted body parts being exposed to radiation, why these protective measures, and if those being protected are meters or tens of meters away from the patient on the table, what does that say about the patient on the table?  Frustrating is the lack of transparency, the evasive answers to direct questions (or at least in my experience). How much radiation was my chest cavity exposed to during treatment? My abdominal cavity? My head? I don't know and don't even know who to ask to get the real answer. As for diagnostics that use radiation, I've said No to CTs in the past (for other things unrelated to the cancer) and no to a PET now to evaluate what's happened to the tumor.  It's exhausting to be the gatekeeper. It's exhausting having to do battle and say "no" to physicians who cavalierly recommend PETs, CTs and all manner of X-ray studies.  Why are these diagnostic tests so prevalent, so common and so often prescribed? My opinion is money. They're huge money-makers. That, and the art in medicine has been lost in direct response to the rise in technology. Medicine is no longer an art and science. The "art" was lost with the rise in technology and also litigation for "things the doctor didn't do but should have done and if he had my mother/sister/brother/wife would be alive," mentality.  Just my thoughts, please no "hate mail" or harsh criticism. It's just my opinion.

Radiation

I agree with you, all the way.  I am seven years out and all things considered doing well...except that pelvic radiation destroyed my left hip and now I will be needing a total hip replacement.

But I am alive and grateful for that.