CyberKnife

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38sallyb
38sallyb Member Posts: 87
edited March 2014 in Esophageal Cancer #1
Jim had his first CyberKnife radiation treatment on Monday. He basically slept through it since he was exhausted from having an assessment by the Home Health nurses, hydration at the Oncologists office, then the radiation was delayed 2 hours because of problems with the patient before him.
Tuesday we went for the second treatment and it was a different story. He could not complete treatment because of the pain of lying on his back for 1 1/2 hrs with his legs straight. We took him home and he rested well. Yesterday he had hydration and a Demerol shot in addition to the Dilaudid he is having for pain. He was pretty well asleep by the time we got to the CyberKnife Center, and everything went well. He will have the last treatment on Tuesday where we will repeat yesterdays hydration and Demerol in order to make sure he sleeps through it.
Coming off the Demerol is another story. It lasts about 6-7 hours for him, then he is wakeful and grumpy. Last night I left him sitting up in bed and went to sleep, just couldn't stay awake any longer. He slept pretty well and was hungry this morning.
Home Health has been wonderful and we are so fortunate our niece had room for us to stay at her house. Major problem trying to get into a rehab facility for short term respite care on private pay. Seems they only want to do insurance or Medicare! Couldn't believe they didn't want to take CASH!!!!
The Dr who plans the CyberKnife said that sometimes it only take a couple of treatments to relieve the pain, but he is still having back pain. We will give it a couple of weeks as he said it can sometimes take that long for the nerves to react. If he has no relief by then, it probably isn't going to relieve the pain even thought the tumor is killed. We are praying for both the tumor to be killed and for pain relief.
Sally

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  • crazyhorse
    crazyhorse Member Posts: 1
    #2
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    cyberknife treatment
    i am so glad to here a story where they have fought cancer and i am happy for you , we have been accepted for cyberknife for my dad , they can treat him but we have had to put in for funding ,we have been refused and are now appealing for the money which is£30,000.00 if we are refused we don't know what we are going to do as it is a lot of money we don't have , my dad is on his 6th session of chemo and that is a lot as he has a pic line in his arm and has to bring it home every two weeks for 48hours and that is all our nhs hospital can offer him which is palliative care , i am annoyed so much that we will have to pay for his life and it should not be like this , i will do everything i can to get the funding ,but if they say no to the funding then we will have to do fund raising events but that means more time to which we do not have , good luck to your family and i hope all is well for you ,and if you have any ideas please do contact me devoted daughter of david fairweather .....kelly delaney xxx
  • chrissyhh
    chrissyhh Member Posts: 1
    #3
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    Cyberknife Surgery
    I am new to the forum, and was wondering what the Cyberknife was used to treat for your husband?

    My brother has had it done twice for tumors in the brain.
  • JimsBrother
    JimsBrother Member Posts: 94
    #4
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    chrissyhh said:

    Cyberknife Surgery
    I am new to the forum, and was wondering what the Cyberknife was used to treat for your husband?

    My brother has had it done twice for tumors in the brain.

    Glad
    I'm glad the treatments are going well. I'm sure sleeping through them makes it much better. I understand back pain and laying on a hard flat surface can be absolutely excrutiating. There really is nothing worse, except a sledge hammer to the foot.

    I pray they relieve his back pain and he can get some relief. It can hurt to just breathe at times and once that pain reaches that level, the only way to get by is with serious medicating. It's good your doctor understands that and doesn't hold back the meds. Many doctors have a different opinion when it comes to that.

    Best of luck.

    Rob
  • 38sallyb
    38sallyb Member Posts: 87
    #5
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    chrissyhh said:

    Cyberknife Surgery
    I am new to the forum, and was wondering what the Cyberknife was used to treat for your husband?

    My brother has had it done twice for tumors in the brain.

    CyberKnife
    He had an MRI to determine cause of back pain. Found broken vertebra caused by aggressive tumor within the vertebra
    had 4 treatments. There should have been only 3 but he quit the second
    one because of the excruciating pain
    because we had to sedate him in order to do the radiation
    he hasost a great deal of weight and is chronically
    dehydrated. He is in the hospital now getting TPN fir
    nutrition.
    He doesn't have a feeding tube but will
    probably get a G tube instead of the J tube
    the Onc thinks surgery for the J tube is too
    much right now. He lost some weight after
    the liver tumors were discovered but none of
    the Drs believed he would need a tube because
    he was eating so well. Sedation of morphine the
    Dilaudid changed all that and now his weight is
    dBgerously low. The Megace he takes every morning
    is helping Jim have an appetite.
  • Tina Blondek
    Tina Blondek Member Posts: 1,500 Member
    #6
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    38sallyb said:

    CyberKnife
    He had an MRI to determine cause of back pain. Found broken vertebra caused by aggressive tumor within the vertebra
    had 4 treatments. There should have been only 3 but he quit the second
    one because of the excruciating pain
    because we had to sedate him in order to do the radiation
    he hasost a great deal of weight and is chronically
    dehydrated. He is in the hospital now getting TPN fir
    nutrition.
    He doesn't have a feeding tube but will
    probably get a G tube instead of the J tube
    the Onc thinks surgery for the J tube is too
    much right now. He lost some weight after
    the liver tumors were discovered but none of
    the Drs believed he would need a tube because
    he was eating so well. Sedation of morphine the
    Dilaudid changed all that and now his weight is
    dBgerously low. The Megace he takes every morning
    is helping Jim have an appetite.

    Hello Sally and Jim
    Thank
    Hello Sally and Jim
    Thank you for your most recent update. Sorry to hear Jim is now having a most difficult time because of his back pain. He and you have been through so very much. I am also concerned about his major weight loss. I am thinking a feeding tube will be in his near future. It will be so hard for him to continue his fight being so frail and weak. Better and more nutrition will help him tremendously. May God continue to bless you both and give you the strength and peace that you both need at this most difficult time. We are all thinking of you and praying for you both daily! Stay in touch when you can.
    Tina in Va

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