I decided that at this point, that I'm going to break down each weeks treatments and schedule. That way you're all in this with Kim and I on how things go. My week to week schedule is relatively similar, with some time changes here, appointment moves there. But all in all, this is sort of how our weeks go.
(I'll explain the therapies later)
Monday-9am Tomo Radiation, 10am Hyper Temperature Therapy, 12pm Pink Light / Speech Language Therapy, Grab some lunch, 1pm Lab Blood Draw to track my blood stats week to week, 3pm Tomo Radiation again. Done for the day. Banker's Hours, right?
Tuesday-9am Tomo Radiation, 10am Pink Light / Speech Language Therapy, 11am-3pm Chemo Therapy, they bring me a some lunch while I'm being pumped full of poison, 3pm Tomo Radiation again.
Done for the day.
Wednesday-9am Tomo Radiation, 9:30am Meet with Radiologist and Nurse, 10am Pink Light / Speech Language Therapy, Leave hospital to run errands or laundry or back to hotel to nap, 3pm Tomo Radiation again. Done for the day.
Thursday-9am Tomo Radiation, 10am Hyper Temperature Therapy, 12pm Pink Light / Speech Language Therapy, Grab some lunch, 1pm Acupuncture Therapy, 3pm Tomo Radiation again. Done.
Friday-9am Tomo Radiation, 9:30am Meet with Radiologist and Nurse, 10am Pink Light / Speech Language Therapy, Leave hospital to run errands or laundry or back to hotel to nap, 3pm Tomo Radiation again. Done for the day. Weekends off to do whatever we feel like.
Not bad. Since we're not working, pretty easy schedule if you just look at the treatment process like it's a job. And that's what each week look like for 7 weeks. Sometimes I start earlier, sometime later.
Now the therapies. I already gave you the poop on the Tomo Radiation. Once you have your mask and your set up with the computer, it takes roughly 15 minute tops- 5 minutes to do the daily alignment and 10 minutes of radiation.
Next is the Hyper Temperature Therapy. The basic premise behind this is that you super heat the cancer cells via this Scify movie looking object on a articulating mechanical arm. There is a large orb of water at the end of the arm about the size of a grapefruit. Apparently, cancer cells are very susceptible to heat while normal cells are not. So, I lay out on a table so that my left side of my neck is exposed (where the lymph nodes have the carcinoma) The therapist then places a piece of cellophane over my neck, places temperature probes up and down my neck, places another piece of cellophane over the probes, then takes the Orb and pushed it down onto my neck. Inside the arm somewhere is a microwave projector. Yes, they're microwaving my neck just like yesterdays leftovers. The projector shoots out through the Orb aimed at my neck. The Orb actually has water in it and acts like a radiator to cool the microwaves before they rip my skin apart (like that hot dog you had for lunch) So I lay there for about an hour, the time it takes to bring my neck temp up to 104.3º. The theory behind this is the cancer cells are weakened by the heat and thus more susceptible to getting killed off by the radiation while leaving the healthy cells to just cool off and not take as much radiation. Any alternative to killing off healthy cells I'm all for, so I do this treatment twice a week for about 1.5 hrs each time. It's not very pleasant and it's hot but hey if it works, what else have ya got!
I have a Speech and Language Pathologist assigned to me. With treatments going on all over my neck, there is a chance to loose the ability to talk and or swallow. I was told this by my Radiologist on my consultation. Mike the SLP is a very nice guy and is always looking for ways to keep me swallowing, talking, and using my mouth so I don't loose any abilities. I have tongue exercises and swallowing exercises. He also has his Pink Light Therapy. I am one of the first patients he's been using this therapy on. It was invented for NASA (aren't all the cool things of the world somehow connected to NASA). It is basically a high intensity LED hand held light. Hmm, right up my alley, eh? Apparently, this light has huge therapeutic value when dealing with skin rashes & sores or mouth sores. I just hold this thing up to each side of my neck for 80 sec., and that's it. It has something to do with the high intensity of the light and the color temperature (it's this weird pinkish redish color) that skin and mouth cells love. Vets are also using it on horses to speed up recovery on leg injuries. Can't tell it's helping but it can't hurt so I do it! Weird Science at it's finest hour. I do have this odd craving for oats!
Next, Chemo. My Hemo-Oncologist had 3 choices for my type of cancer. One was using Cisplatin, one of the oldest and most used Chemo drug. Cisplatin is one of the most prescribed chemo drug, take a long time to administer, and has a very long list of side effects. It was on my "Do Not Use" list and I told the Dr. that Cisplatin was not an option. So he came back with 2 other choices. One was for Erbitux. Erbitux is not a traditional Chemo drug, is primarily used for my type of cancer, the nefarious squamous cell carcinoma when used in conjunction with radiation. However, because of my heart attack, Erbitux does have a chance of creating heart problems. I guessing that's why I'm not using it.
Then last choice, in conjunction with radiation, was the cocktail that I am currently using. Therapy begins with a Benedryl drip followed by a bunch of fluids, then the cocktail of a 1 hour drip of Carboplatin followed up with a 1 hour drip of Taxotere. This happens once a week and supposed to be doing radiation at the same time. The cocktail breaks the cancer cells down for the radiation to finish up the job of killing off the bad cells.
Last is acupuncture. It is the traditional process, if you've ever had acupuncture, of sticking multiple needles across my body. Our concentration (the Acu DR. and me) for me was to boost the immune system as well as circulation. I also wanted some of the nausea from Chemo to be alleviated with acupuncture / magnetism than with taking just more pills to the daily growing list of medications and supplements. Believe me, if you have never tried acupuncture, go try it. It works really well on the "Big Paint Stroke" ailments. Acupuncture is a benefit of choosing CTCA for my hospital/clinic. CTCA offers almost all of the "alternate" medicines; massage, acupuncture, SLP, Chiropractor, etc, as a freebie on the facility. That's another reason we chose CTCA, all of this for free and available on staff and if Kim wanted any of the services (like a massage), it cost her like $20 for a 30 min massage.
So that's the schedule and the treatments. I can now finally get to the week by week stuff you all have been asking me about.
(I'll explain the therapies later)
Monday-9am Tomo Radiation, 10am Hyper Temperature Therapy, 12pm Pink Light / Speech Language Therapy, Grab some lunch, 1pm Lab Blood Draw to track my blood stats week to week, 3pm Tomo Radiation again. Done for the day. Banker's Hours, right?
Tuesday-9am Tomo Radiation, 10am Pink Light / Speech Language Therapy, 11am-3pm Chemo Therapy, they bring me a some lunch while I'm being pumped full of poison, 3pm Tomo Radiation again.
Done for the day.
Wednesday-9am Tomo Radiation, 9:30am Meet with Radiologist and Nurse, 10am Pink Light / Speech Language Therapy, Leave hospital to run errands or laundry or back to hotel to nap, 3pm Tomo Radiation again. Done for the day.
Thursday-9am Tomo Radiation, 10am Hyper Temperature Therapy, 12pm Pink Light / Speech Language Therapy, Grab some lunch, 1pm Acupuncture Therapy, 3pm Tomo Radiation again. Done.
Friday-9am Tomo Radiation, 9:30am Meet with Radiologist and Nurse, 10am Pink Light / Speech Language Therapy, Leave hospital to run errands or laundry or back to hotel to nap, 3pm Tomo Radiation again. Done for the day. Weekends off to do whatever we feel like.
Not bad. Since we're not working, pretty easy schedule if you just look at the treatment process like it's a job. And that's what each week look like for 7 weeks. Sometimes I start earlier, sometime later.
Now the therapies. I already gave you the poop on the Tomo Radiation. Once you have your mask and your set up with the computer, it takes roughly 15 minute tops- 5 minutes to do the daily alignment and 10 minutes of radiation.
Next is the Hyper Temperature Therapy. The basic premise behind this is that you super heat the cancer cells via this Scify movie looking object on a articulating mechanical arm. There is a large orb of water at the end of the arm about the size of a grapefruit. Apparently, cancer cells are very susceptible to heat while normal cells are not. So, I lay out on a table so that my left side of my neck is exposed (where the lymph nodes have the carcinoma) The therapist then places a piece of cellophane over my neck, places temperature probes up and down my neck, places another piece of cellophane over the probes, then takes the Orb and pushed it down onto my neck. Inside the arm somewhere is a microwave projector. Yes, they're microwaving my neck just like yesterdays leftovers. The projector shoots out through the Orb aimed at my neck. The Orb actually has water in it and acts like a radiator to cool the microwaves before they rip my skin apart (like that hot dog you had for lunch) So I lay there for about an hour, the time it takes to bring my neck temp up to 104.3º. The theory behind this is the cancer cells are weakened by the heat and thus more susceptible to getting killed off by the radiation while leaving the healthy cells to just cool off and not take as much radiation. Any alternative to killing off healthy cells I'm all for, so I do this treatment twice a week for about 1.5 hrs each time. It's not very pleasant and it's hot but hey if it works, what else have ya got!
I have a Speech and Language Pathologist assigned to me. With treatments going on all over my neck, there is a chance to loose the ability to talk and or swallow. I was told this by my Radiologist on my consultation. Mike the SLP is a very nice guy and is always looking for ways to keep me swallowing, talking, and using my mouth so I don't loose any abilities. I have tongue exercises and swallowing exercises. He also has his Pink Light Therapy. I am one of the first patients he's been using this therapy on. It was invented for NASA (aren't all the cool things of the world somehow connected to NASA). It is basically a high intensity LED hand held light. Hmm, right up my alley, eh? Apparently, this light has huge therapeutic value when dealing with skin rashes & sores or mouth sores. I just hold this thing up to each side of my neck for 80 sec., and that's it. It has something to do with the high intensity of the light and the color temperature (it's this weird pinkish redish color) that skin and mouth cells love. Vets are also using it on horses to speed up recovery on leg injuries. Can't tell it's helping but it can't hurt so I do it! Weird Science at it's finest hour. I do have this odd craving for oats!
Next, Chemo. My Hemo-Oncologist had 3 choices for my type of cancer. One was using Cisplatin, one of the oldest and most used Chemo drug. Cisplatin is one of the most prescribed chemo drug, take a long time to administer, and has a very long list of side effects. It was on my "Do Not Use" list and I told the Dr. that Cisplatin was not an option. So he came back with 2 other choices. One was for Erbitux. Erbitux is not a traditional Chemo drug, is primarily used for my type of cancer, the nefarious squamous cell carcinoma when used in conjunction with radiation. However, because of my heart attack, Erbitux does have a chance of creating heart problems. I guessing that's why I'm not using it.
Then last choice, in conjunction with radiation, was the cocktail that I am currently using. Therapy begins with a Benedryl drip followed by a bunch of fluids, then the cocktail of a 1 hour drip of Carboplatin followed up with a 1 hour drip of Taxotere. This happens once a week and supposed to be doing radiation at the same time. The cocktail breaks the cancer cells down for the radiation to finish up the job of killing off the bad cells.
Last is acupuncture. It is the traditional process, if you've ever had acupuncture, of sticking multiple needles across my body. Our concentration (the Acu DR. and me) for me was to boost the immune system as well as circulation. I also wanted some of the nausea from Chemo to be alleviated with acupuncture / magnetism than with taking just more pills to the daily growing list of medications and supplements. Believe me, if you have never tried acupuncture, go try it. It works really well on the "Big Paint Stroke" ailments. Acupuncture is a benefit of choosing CTCA for my hospital/clinic. CTCA offers almost all of the "alternate" medicines; massage, acupuncture, SLP, Chiropractor, etc, as a freebie on the facility. That's another reason we chose CTCA, all of this for free and available on staff and if Kim wanted any of the services (like a massage), it cost her like $20 for a 30 min massage.
So that's the schedule and the treatments. I can now finally get to the week by week stuff you all have been asking me about.
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