Radiation and Possible Chemo, Too

Up to now, I had been going on the assumption that the next stage of my treatment would be radiation. But when I met with a new doctor, the one who would be physician for the radiation, he raised the possibility of doing chemotherapy in addition to the radiation. Only two of my neck lymph nodes were cancerous, but they were fused tightly together. It was hard to tell if cancer cells had left one node and migrated to the other, or they were just stuck together without any migration. All the studies pointed towards chemo not being particularly helpful long-term when dealing with only two nodes and not clearly knowing what the cancer did.

I met with a chemo specialist and talked about it with her. Chemo would take care of any cancer that had migrated anywhere else in my body, whereas radiation would only take care of my neck area. Since there was no evidence that the cancer had spread anywhere, my survival rate would not improve much with radiation and chemo. I always thought that I would want the absolute best chance of survival I could get, but the side effects of chemo are much worse than radiation. Both doctors assured me that the difference in survival rates was negligible. I decided to go with radiation only. I was given enough information that I feel I made the right decision. Still, I feel that if I ever get cancer somewhere else I may question that decision. Oh well. Survival rates for either decision, I might add, are quite high with this type of cancer.

This is like my mask

In order to make sure I don't squirm during the treatment, they have this wonderful device called a mask. It's made from a weave of thermal plastic that fits over your head and shoulders and nails you motionless on a table - referred to from here on as "the plank" It's an interesting piece of hardware. The woven thermal plastic comes in a frame in the shape of a human head and shoulders. This thin, woven plastic becomes flexible when put in warm water; you close your eyes, don't move (you're lying on the plank), then they push it down on your face and screw it in to the plank. It feels wet, warm and very confining. The key is to relax. Don't fight in it, you're going to be there longer than you want to be but it doesn't hurt. It's only done like this once; to make your own uniquely shaped mask that is used for your radiation treatments. It should be noted here that they also tie your hands down to the bottom of the plank where your feet are, so that it pulls your shoulders down away from your neck. This makes the mask better conform to your body for treatment.

In order to cool the mask quicker, the tech puts cool, wet cloths on it while it's still on your face, to speed up the process. Once it is sufficiently hard, he releases you from the mask, making you feel very much like Hannibal Lecter. He then helps you sit up to relax and takes the mask over to the sink for more cooling. As he did this, I made the comment, "Well, that was very interesting." He laughed. I think that relaxed us both. I said, "I bet you get a lot of different reactions to that."

He laughed again. "Yes, I do."

Once it was hardened, he put the mask back on me again to do the 360-degree X-ray of my head and neck. This was even more confining than when it was warm and wet because it was hard. No sooner than it made me feel a little panicky, he told me to lift my chin, and it fit perfectly. You can't open your eyes because the mesh is pressing tight on your eyelids (eye holes would be added later). But I was relaxed, reminding myself to keep breathing deep. I almost feel asleep at one point.

I started to question my ability to wear that thing for 30 sessions, but as I'm writing this I've completed seven sessions, and it's pretty easy to get used to. I just keep reminding myself to breathe deep and relax.

The Plank