I have completed six of ten whole brain radiation treatments at the University of California San Francisco Parnassus campus. You can read more about the machine True Beam that is being used here. The article even includes a picture of the room I'm in each day.
The pictures above show the outline of the external beam as it comes out of the machine and the matching outline on the side of my head. Each treatment takes approximately only one minute per side. It's very fast, thus preventing chances of movement during treatment causing damage to healthy tissue.
As far as side effects go, I've had both a combination of fatigue and insomnia. My sleep patterns are all over the place. We're starting to wean me off the steroids in order to get the patterns more at night rather than two hour snatches several times a day.
I was caught off guard by increasing weakness in my left leg rather than strengthening in the leg. However, I was assured that this was somewhat normal and that the strength should return within a couple of weeks or so. I am careful about going up and down stairs and I give myself plenty of time to get around.
All in all, I'm doing well. I've cleared my schedule and I do things when they need to be done. I'm not rushing around and that's probably good for me.
Four to go!
The pictures above show the outline of the external beam as it comes out of the machine and the matching outline on the side of my head. Each treatment takes approximately only one minute per side. It's very fast, thus preventing chances of movement during treatment causing damage to healthy tissue.
As far as side effects go, I've had both a combination of fatigue and insomnia. My sleep patterns are all over the place. We're starting to wean me off the steroids in order to get the patterns more at night rather than two hour snatches several times a day.
I was caught off guard by increasing weakness in my left leg rather than strengthening in the leg. However, I was assured that this was somewhat normal and that the strength should return within a couple of weeks or so. I am careful about going up and down stairs and I give myself plenty of time to get around.
All in all, I'm doing well. I've cleared my schedule and I do things when they need to be done. I'm not rushing around and that's probably good for me.
Four to go!
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