afraid of radiation

I'd go back, if it were me, and try and tolerate more of it.
I'm afraid of it, too. I finished my 6 rounds of carbo/taxol in late March, and have an appointment tomorrow for my radiation simulation, tatoos, & their special 'positioning' CT-scan. My radiation is precautionary; they don't see anything there. And yet I am scheduled for 25 to 28 rounds of external pelvic and then 3 vaginal internal rounds. Believe me; I can understand your fear; I'm terrified of the possible long-term side effects and more than a little apprehensive about the treatments themselves. But I plan to do it, all of it, if my bone marrow holds up to get it all in. If it is just fear, perhaps you could talk with someone and be given a mild sedative. What do they say will happen if you quit now? BIG HUGS!! I hate this, too.

lociee said:

radiation quandry
If I quit now the tumor will rapidly grow back - also smaller cancer cells in area that will grow.
Spoke with chemo doc today - he thinks that chemo has done what it can for now - so it seems
that radiation is the ONLY possible help for the pain. I've got a call in to radiation doc to see
if we can adjust treatment. Turn it down a notch? I'll let you know what happens.

Have you told the radiation therapy staff about your burning
I am sorry you are having so much burning with your radiation treatments. I had my 6th radiation therapy treatment today and I have not had any burning, or even know that I have had any treatments. Every day the staff asks how I am feeling or if I have any problems. I don't know if the dosage is too high that it is burning you. I would certainly ask to talk to the radiation onocologist. Before I have my treatment I have to have a full bladder. My doctor said it is easier to treat any bladder side effects than the bowel side effects. He said the full bladder pushes the bowel out of the way so less radiation gets to the small bowel. Good luck with your decisions. I will keep you in my prayers.

lociee said:

I can't imagine internal
I can't imagine internal radiation! How scary. I feel like a wimp putting up such a fuss about
regular radiation!

hang in there
I have just completed my 17th session of external radiaiton I did not have any burning in fact i felt nothing. I am having some bladder problems but are very managable with medications. My bowels are loose once in a while but Imodium helps. Ask you radiaiton staff if there is another postiton to lay in that might be more comfortable. I lay face down on my stomach for my treatment this pushes the bowel out of the way and a full bladder pushes it even more. My treatment take 7 minutes and i get to pick the music being played in the treatment room. I find that having more control over my treatment is helpful. Good luck and please keep us all updated. I will have internal radiation after external is completed i am a little afraid of this but this whole thing CANCER is scary

lindaprocopio said:

Got my radiation tattoos, positioning CT-scan, today.
Looks like I'll be getting 28 rounds (instead of 25) of external pelvic radiation, to be followed by the 3 internal vaginal brachys. Today I got my 3 little tattoos and had my 'positioning' CT-scans. They had to call in the "IV team" to get the needle in me for the contrast, after 2 others tried and couldn't get a good vein. (I guess my veins are all shot now from the chemo). They used a 'vaginal marker' to help with 'lining me up' during the simulation. I start the external radiation April 30th (5 weeks from the day of my last chemo) and will finish up June 9th, with treatments every day Monday to Friday, except for Memorial Day. Sooooo, if the 3 brachys start the next week, I could be 'out of treatment' by July 1st! That will coincide with my next CT-scan, so I can only pray that the tiny 'nodule' on my lung is gone on that scan and I can be NED and in remission by Independence Day! I can't even imagine how devastating it will be if I have to go back into chemo right away; I can't and won't even think about that. The only thing that makes me eager to start the radiation is that I sooooo want all this 'doctoring' to be over, and this is the last lap of my initial treatment protocol.

Sorry if I worried any of you
I am so sorry if I worried anyone with what went on with my internal radiation. Again, the treatments were not painful! It was just that the staff doing the procedure were inconsiderate!

Linda, do you know why your doctor decided on the 28 treatments over 25? Just curious and wondering if some new data is showing that 28 is better than 25. I am going to pray for your peace of mind in regards to the lung spot. I believe that you are NED, but I know your mind will probably not completely rest until the next scan is clean.

I think you are all brave, brave ladies and I am so glad to have "met" you all.

Deanna

lociee said:

# of treatments
I'm concerned about how they decide # of treatments. How many will you have? They wanted to do 33
on me - have talked them down to 25. 33 seems to be asking for trouble, i.e. side effects. What stage
is your cancer??

I have no idea why they want to do 25 instead of 28.
I'm Stage III-c, and they show no evidence of any tumor or disease in my pelvic region. I did have a pelvic lymph node with microscopic cancer cells shown in my pathology, but that was removed with my original surgery. So my radiation is all 'precautionary', and is a standard part of "going for the cure". My radiation said "25 to 28 rounds of external pelvic radiation" , and the calendar they gave me has all 28 scheduled, but I think they actually plan to take it that far IF my body holds up to it. I may not be able to make the full 28, as I have had trouble with my hemoglobin counts since my 3rd round of chemo, and I know that radiation affects your bone marrow. There is no tumor that they are targeting with this, my pelvic region looks clean on the CT-scan.

lindaprocopio said:

Got my radiation tattoos, positioning CT-scan, today.
Looks like I'll be getting 28 rounds (instead of 25) of external pelvic radiation, to be followed by the 3 internal vaginal brachys. Today I got my 3 little tattoos and had my 'positioning' CT-scans. They had to call in the "IV team" to get the needle in me for the contrast, after 2 others tried and couldn't get a good vein. (I guess my veins are all shot now from the chemo). They used a 'vaginal marker' to help with 'lining me up' during the simulation. I start the external radiation April 30th (5 weeks from the day of my last chemo) and will finish up June 9th, with treatments every day Monday to Friday, except for Memorial Day. Sooooo, if the 3 brachys start the next week, I could be 'out of treatment' by July 1st! That will coincide with my next CT-scan, so I can only pray that the tiny 'nodule' on my lung is gone on that scan and I can be NED and in remission by Independence Day! I can't even imagine how devastating it will be if I have to go back into chemo right away; I can't and won't even think about that. The only thing that makes me eager to start the radiation is that I sooooo want all this 'doctoring' to be over, and this is the last lap of my initial treatment protocol.

endometrial cancer
good luck. I am new to this and my mom was diagnosed and had surgery in Feb. 2009. she was having no symptoms. after the Hysterectomy they said all was good. Now the surgeon says she needs just brachy but the rad. oncologist says she needs both 27 external beam txs and the 2 brachys. i am scared due to no consensus. bonnie

lindaprocopio said:

BonnieSue: Forgive me if you posted this before...
Hi, BonnieSue! What type of cancer does your mother have? A lot of the decisions on radiation and chemo have to do with the TYPE of cancer cell. Aggressive cell types like papillary serous and clear cell usually call for some type of additional treatment beyond surgery regardless of the stage, since they are sneaky cancer cells that exfoliate and travel in microscopic form and then begin to grow later and cause you added heartache. So if you have an aggressive fast-growing cancer type, they like to do precautionary treatments after the surgery to make sure no calls are hiding anywhere else.

I have UPSC Stage III-c, and this papillary serous type of uterine cancer is one of those dangerous aggressive types that requires a LOT of additional treatment after surgery, even if all indications are that they 'got it all'. Actually your mother had a very small number of lymph nodes removed. I had 25 lymph nodes removed and the cancer was only found in 1 of the 25, in microscopic form. Your radiation oncologist may be concerned with the small number of lymph nodes for diagnosis and therefore want to be more aggressive, while your surgeon may be defensive about the small number of lymph nodes he/she removed. (Had my surgeon only removed 10 or so lymph nodes, he could easily have left in the one node that had the cancer in it, and I would have been incporrectly staged.)

Please see if you can find out what TYPE of cancer cells your mother is dealing with. If she has the more common type of uterine cancer, then I wouldn't want you to be frightened by our posts and the aggressiveness of our treatments, as MOST uterine cancers are not nearly as aggressive as UPSC. But if she has a more aggressive type of cancer, I would err on the side of 'too agressive' treatment with that small number of lymph nodes determining your mother's staging. ((((BonnieSue)))).

endometrial
Thanks for your thoughtful quick reply. My mother was asymptomatic, energetic, working and has always been health conscious when she had a CT scan for kidney stones it was detected in Oct 2008.. NO vaginal bleeding or anything.They felt it was endometrial thickening that deserved to be biopsied but would probably be nothing. It turned out to be endometrial cancer endometrioid with focal squamous differentition FIGO grade 1. She had her Davinci robot Feb. 2009 with six pelvic nodes taken and pelvic washings negative and then the surgeon came out post op and said all was great. 2 weeks later after path --the grade was the same, questionalble lymphovascular invasion which they thought was artifact, depth of myometrial invasion 1cm/1.4 and 1.2/1.4. lower uterine segment involvement.I am reading off path report. this caused me to send her path report for a second opnion which agreed but said cervical stromal involvement which has been argued against-- making her a GRADE1 stage1c or 2b. the surgeon was adamant about just needing 4 high dose brachy but the rad. oncologist said 27 IMRT and 2 brachy. This has caused me nightmares because they left the decision to my mother who has no medical training and the fact that endometrial cancer is rare there is not the immense consensus like other more common cancers. there are 37000 cases diagnosed a year and NO screening tests. It is silent. My mother never missed a pap smear and has always done everything she is supposed to. Also the follow-up for her is every 3 months to the gyne oncs. He said no to CEA. I had her get a Petscan/CT fusion 2 months post-op because a radiologist recommended it and that was negative. Uterine cancer pts need to enroll in the NOPR(National oncology pet registry study?) because PET/CT has not been approved for Uterine cancer but is for other cancers due to the small # of uterine cancers. There is a study to help with staging. Anyway, I am distraught and want the best for my mom with the least complications. I asked about the small node sampling and was told there was not a huge amount of nodes to be gathered as my mother is very thin. I asked if they should go in and get more. i was told no as it was too much a risk and the para- metrial tissues were negative. Anyway, this is long..sorry. I am frightened. Bonnie

deanna14 said:

Hi BonnieSue and Welcome.
It sounds to me like your mother has the less aggressive (endometriod) form of uterine cancer. It tends to be less aggressive from what I have read. Many of this posting on this board have UPSC as Linda said. We are all receiving very aggressive treatment due to the aggressive nature of this type of cancer cell. Even in the earlier stages, UPSC warrants aggressive radiation and chemotherapy.

I have found that my gyn/onc and my rad/onc frequently disagree. I take the advice of the rad/onc about radiation and the advice of the gyn/onc for chemo. These are their specialties. My gyn/onc deferred to the rad/onc for a recommendation for my radiation therapy. I think you would find that this is normal. Just a difference of opinion, and the radiation oncologist is the expert when it comes to radiation, so I would fell quite safe going with his rec. However, if you are feeling uncomfortable with this, I would encourage you to get another opinion. It is never out of line to get another opinion if you are not comfortable. A good physician will not take this as an insult, but rather encourage you to seek another opinion.

I understand your being frightened. Cancer is a very scary illness. It sounds like your mother's cancer was caught very early and that you have every reason to be optimistic. Thank God for the CT scan for kidney stones!

Can you elaborate on the NOPR PET/CT study... I would be very interested in being a part of this. Is there any other information that you can provide about this?

I'm glad you found this site. There are very helpful, supportive and strong ladies here. May God Bless you and your mother.

Hugs,
Deanna

my mother
Deanna, thanks for your thoughts. I am still finding my way around this site and sometimes cannot see the replies. May god bless you also. the NOPR study which is by the government and I believe the scans are paid for as you are in a study. The very helpful person was my mothers family doctor. He wrote a script for Endometrial cancer and put her stage on the prescription. He also wrote PET/CT fusion as you need the combined machine. They give you radioactive sugar through the IV prior and I guess low false positives and negatives. Sugar goes to where there is tumor and lights up if there is uptake. The place she had it done was a free standing center and they faxed the paperwork for her doc to fill out and fax back. The gyne onc was not really interested in the test so it was easier to go to the primary care doc that was open to it. I am thankful a radiologist mentioned it to me. Thanks for your kind words. Fran Dreschar's book Cancer Schmancer has helped my mother a lot. I have felt a lot of compassion from even strangers as I am a big crier and my mom is my right arm. I am thankful it was picked up or we would not have known. It is ashame there is not a marker like for prostate PSA but I hope to be a beacon of knowledge to help people know that a negative pap should not drop your guard. My mom had fatigue for a good year. Even if you go to a doctor for check-ups you must be vigil when your body talks quietly to you. If you know of any markers please let me know. the gyne onc said none. No one has mentioned chemo so the more I google and ask questions the more I think there is no consensus but I felt the rad onc probably knew more on the radiation topic however I am afraid of pelvic radiation and the possible complications and wonder who has the best machines and what not. And the long term bowel problems or damage or cancer caused by radiation. I am trying to be positive but my mom knows me so well it is hard to hide my emotions. Best, Bonniesue