July 5, 2011
Today is the first day of our journey back to normalcy. After talking to the Medical Oncologist, we decided to join a clinical trial. The premise of the trial is that the standard 7 weeks of IMRT radiation is "over treating" the cancer, which affects quality of life down the road. Specifically, excessive radiation can cause "late swallowing toxcitiy" whereby scar tissue in the throat can make swallowing food impossible and cause long-term dependence on feeding tubes. While this doesn't happen often, it appears that Ernie's scleroderma makes him more susceptible to scaring. The chance to avoid excessive scaring was key to our decision. In this trial, if all goes well, Ernie will only have to endure 5 1/2 weeks of radiation.
Ernie's insurance company approved him for the trial. All that remains to be done before he can start treatment is to have an independent lab confirm that his tumor is HPV+. Fingers crossed, this will happen fast and he will have his first chemo treatnment next week. Chemo alone will last 9 weeks and then be followed by chemo plus radiation.
To prepare for the radiation, Ernie also had his "simulation" today. The simulation involves placing him in the same position he will be in during his radiation treatments. They then make a large "mask" that covers his face, neck and shoulders and conforms to his body. The purpose of the mask is to insure that he is in the identcal position during each treatment. They also did a CT and an MRI with contrast so that they can mark the mask with the area to be irradiated. Finally, he needed a chest x-ray for the clinical trial.
All of this took about 6 hours. They told us this would be a full-time job; now we understand why.
No comments:
Post a Comment