Here are some photos from leg radiation. They gave Carl a dot tattoo, and taped some markers on his leg with some very good adhesive. (Click on any image to see it larger.)
The machine above is the machine they use for radiation with a CT simulation. The circular part will do a CT simulation to check that the right area is getting zapped. Most days the radiation treatment was done on a machine that looks like the one in my post "What Radiation looks like."
Here is the form they custom made to hold Carl's leg in place for each radiation treatment.
This photo shows the path that the radiation machine followed. The area getting radiation was quite large, and the dose was high, which was one reason I was worried about possible side-effects. But radiation has gone very well, with almost no side effects as far as I can tell. I even joked yesterday to Carl, maybe we went through this entire procedure for 15 days and the machine went through the motions, but they forgot to turn the beam on.
Possible side effects ranging from sun-burned like skin, swelling, significant pain, etc. seemed to not happen. Carl is of course tired often, and sleeps way more then he ever used to, but he isn't complaining of major fatigue like I thought might happen. What a relief. I will thank God and all of the many prayers for this.
(Yesterday was one of the first days that Carl said he could feel an impact on his leg. I encouraged him to take a pain pill, but he didn't. It didn't hurt, per se, according to Carl.)
The radiation will continue to damage the tumor cells for several more weeks. The odds that all the tumor cells in the leg will be killed are way under 20% (my number, not the Doctors), but I am hoping anyway. More rounds of chemotherapy will be starting within the next month, but for now we get a small break :)
3 comments:
What an amazing undertaking. I am confident there will be 100% tumor cells knocked out in the second round. This is the second round right? God has blessed you by not allowing any ill effects during treatment. Seriously you could use a bit of tanning on those legs Carl. Just saying. Much love and prayers,
Julie :)
Wow, I'm learning a lot from the posts...just feel bad that Carl has to go through all that but am happy that the side effects have been few. Praying right along with you that the cancer cells are all knocked out.
Yeah! One more checked off the list! Glad to hear the side effects were minimal/not there. I imagine you don't ever want to hear the words "possible side effects" again.
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