Radiation Treatments Week V

We completed week five of radiation treatments yesterday. That's a total of 23 dosages of radiation. Monday begins the last week of treatments and I'm glad they will be over. After yesterday's treatment I was too tired to post anything. In fact I've spent the entire day today resting and trying to store up some energy. The first three weeks of treatments as expected were not too debilitating for me. A little fatigue had set in and there was no real pain to the area being treated.

With the start of the fourth week I began to experience real fatigue, dull aching over the entire site of radiation and some deep pain in my arm. Its two weeks later now and I'm worn down. Each week the time period of the radiation dosage has been increased by a few seconds. It started out in the first week at 5 seconds for the long dosage. I get four long doses to four different sites and two short doses to another two sites. The short duration doses have remained at 1 second for the entire period of treatments. However the long doses have steadily increased in duration and yesterday they lasted 30 seconds each. When I left the hospital my arm was a tinge of pink over the brown tan. I was lightheaded and too tired to walk more than a few feet at a time. The treated area was tingling and very sensitive to being touched.

Thursday's are scheduled for a visit with the radiologist every week so he can check me out and review the progress of my treatment. I like my doctor but sometimes not what he tells me. Thursday; day before yesterday as he was checking my burn area he said the tanning and discoloration of my arm was what he expected. He asked me about pain or any other complaints. I related to him how I felt and how the pain was during the week. He then tells me the treatments are proceeding as he expected and then says it will get worse this week.

I'm glad its the last week of treatments because more discomfort is not something I look forward to. I'll post pictures of the final skin changes after the final treatment this coming week.