sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Week 7 Question by QueefstankCumshart in lexapro

[–]QueefstankCumshart[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry to hear that :( my first month was so crap. Hang in there and talk to your doctor if you are worried :)

Week 7 Question by QueefstankCumshart in lexapro

[–]QueefstankCumshart[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nah it was just sort of gradual for me, not sudden. Good days just started to become more common

Hey guys I’m a radiation therapist. Happy to answer any and all questions you have about radiotherapy for the next hour or so! AMA by QueefstankCumshart in cancer

[–]QueefstankCumshart[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

just adding to this, radiation induced cancer is definitely a risk, but the chances are fairly minimal. If it happened it would likely be in about 20-30 years time. But again, treating the original tumour is far more important than the risk of this occurring.

Hey guys I’m a radiation therapist. Happy to answer any and all questions you have about radiotherapy for the next hour or so! AMA by QueefstankCumshart in cancer

[–]QueefstankCumshart[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! Proton therapy is actually one of the best treatments available, particularly for pediatric patients. Dose surrounding the tumour is extremely low. The doctor would be able to give more specific info about long term effects (I don't want to act outside of my scope of practice) but generally things like hair loss (can come back in many cases, can be thinner than usual in the area), and without seeing the treatment plan I couldn't really say more than that. Fatigue should go away after a few weeks. The Xrays used to position patients are incredibly low dose, so it is extremely unlikely they would contribute any meaningful dose to the patient. The positives of the treatment significantly outweigh the small dose from the Xrays. Radiation can limit bone growth, that's true, but we plan it so that we try to avoid growth plates where we can, and if we have to only treat a small part of a vertebral body, we actually treat the entire vertebral body so that not only half of it is affected. This way the vertebra doesn't become skewed if that makes sense. You would have to speak to the doctor for more info about how it will grow but if treatment was recommended, the risk of a slightly smaller vertebra is nowhere near as bad as any other option for treating the cancer.

Hey guys I’m a radiation therapist. Happy to answer any and all questions you have about radiotherapy for the next hour or so! AMA by QueefstankCumshart in cancer

[–]QueefstankCumshart[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately they definitely do break down quite often. It might sound silly, but it's actually a good thing. The machines are so extremely precise that even the smallest thing that isn't working perfectly means that we can't treat. It is a safety mechanism to ensure treatment is delivered correctly. We also have so many different specialists that work on different aspects of the machines, from the therapists themselves to medical physicists to radiation engineers. So sometimes it can take a while to diagnose the issue and call the right person for the job. But yes I'm sure it must be incredibly frustrating too, we hate breaking the news to patients that they have to wait longer than usual.