had 2nd treatment today,

[Peggy]

I have 24 more to go, I was just wondering what if anything should I expect.  will I start to feel sick after each treatment, will it get worse the more treatments I have,  I hate not knowing whats to come.  I go everyday during the week, have weekends off.  I know everyone reacts differently to the treatments, I'm just curious about what to expect.  will I feel nothing until I'm all done?  I'll try to take it one treatment at a time but its hard,  its scary.  do all tumors swell, if that happens does it happen during treatments and if so is there anything beside steroids that i could take to prevent it? 

thanks

peg 

[tdworkin]

Peggy,
I had three 45-minute cyberknife treatments. I felt nothing during and immediately after each. I was given a steroid medication after each session. A week later, I am now experiencing a pretty constant headache- perhaps from swelling, perhaps it's  from my days in a normally noisy and chaotic classroom with forty 5 year olds with too much to do and not enough time to do it all in.

I assume you are having F.S.R.- this would be small doses of radiation spread out over 26-30 days, right? From my reading, I suspect you won't have much in the way of "aftershocks." Maybe headache. I wonder why your doctors haven't given you that info. Certainly, there is someone at the facility who can answer your questions about it. I am much like you in my need to know- don't surprise me, give me the facts, possiblities and maybes included. I know everyone is different, but armed with information is better than waiting and wondering "what's up??"

Hang in there and good health to you,
Terry

[MLB57]

Hi Peg--I had 30 FSR treatments (1.8GY each) on a Variance LINAC machine at Mass Gen Boston, MA- finishing Oct 22--pretty uneventful--no side effects--I will have an MRI a year from now--hopefully my approx 1 cm rt AN (regrowth) will have shrank or stabilized or show signs of dying.  I had weekly app'ts w/Dr Loeffler--you must have periodic appts, so do ask whatever you need to know about.  Best wishes!!  Mary from  MA

[Detlef]

I've just completed 4 of 5 CK treatments at Georgetown University Hospital.  So far, uneventful.  I understand that the complications from tumor swelling occur within a few weeks after treatment.  I elected to take the tranquilizer (Adovan), so I felt jet-lagged for the rest of day after treatment.  I seemed more tired by my fourth treament--a nine-hour sleep the following night fixed that... My final treatment is scheduled for this Monday.  I'll post again in few days.

[mema]

It really pleases me to see you folks who didn't get any side effects.  Unfortunately mine started the very first day of treatment, and never  went away.  I remember going down to sign some papers and having blurry vision.  And my headaches and brain spasms started day one also.  Peg I think it is a very good sign that you don't have any symptoms.  No one has ever giving me an answer as to why I got effects the very first day.  I've had other docs (my hubbys who are in completely different fields of medicine nothing Head related speculate to me.)  I still wonder if was it because my an was small or was I very sensitive to the radiation.  I have 25 treatments.  My only consolation is if thats true CK or GK might of been worse for me, if I'm sensitive.                                                                                   




                                    mema

[MLB57]

  Hi Mema--I am having neck muscle tightness/spasms causing headaches altho the headaches are fewer now 3 wks post FSR reatment. The neck tightness started Mid July (surgery was 2001--AN growing so I opted for radiation 30 FSR to protect weakened facial nerve). If you had FSR you know your head is clamped down (immobilized) and so the neck muslces are in that positon for approx 15 mins for 30 days. My MD Dr Loeffler said that didn't help my neck muscles but (my words) that's how the treatment is done.. So I'm to start massage. (Heat to area helps, too)... Hope this helps you some...

Regards, Mary from MA

[jimmy r]

I have had 23 FSR treatments so far with no trouble other then fatigue, which may be a result of driving 4 hours a day every day.

[sgerrard]

2 down, 24 to go. Sounds like football. 

The main effect I noticed is that I just feel better. I still have the tinnitus, and the hearing loss, and that feeling of fullness, but somehow they don't bother me as much. Part of me knows that the AN has been zapped, it is living on borrowed time now, it is a marked AN, it is a short timer, it is not long for this world. The worry is gone. Some days are better than others, but nothing so far has been a big problem.

Best wishes for the remaining 24, and the rest of your life afterwards.

Steve