Not so bad

December 17, 2023. It’s been a little over a week since my last focal radiation treatment. It wasn’t as bad as I imagined. First let me say, the radiation team was top notch. They were welcoming and friendly. They went out of their way to ensure I was as comfortable as possible. Within minutes, I felt completely at ease in their most capable hands.

That first day of treatment I had to hold my breath a bunch of times. Prior to actually being radiated we did a few practice runs to get everything calibrated specifically for me and my breathing patterns. Once everything was exactly as it should be, the breath holding began while the zapping took place. The longest I ended up holding my breath was 43 seconds. The shortest was 23. At the end of day one, they calculated that I could comfortably (that word might be a stretch) hold my breath for 33 seconds. On days two through five, I rarely had to go longer than that and occasionally it was shorter. Typically, there were around 10 zappings each session.

I was told to expect fatigue and possibly some esophageal irritation (due to the location of one of the two nodules they radiated) the week following treatments. They were not kidding. The amount of fatigue I experienced this past week was surprising in its intensity. Several times I was overcome with bouts of weakness after the smallest amount of activity. Yesterday was the first day that I felt like my old self. I do still have a bit of lower throat irritation, similar to mild heartburn. But it is more of a minor annoyance than anything.

On Wednesday I had CT scans to establish a baseline that will allow us to see if the radiation did its job. I was nervous to learn what the results might be given I’ve been off treatment since November 8. Instead it was like an early Christmas present to read that everything remains unchanged. There are no new or enlarging pulmonary nodules. No findings to suggest new or worsening intrathoracic metastatic disease.

This coming week we see Dr. Rugo to discuss next steps. I expect she’ll recommend more chemotherapy. My hope is to delay any new treatment until the next CT scans are completed. That way we will know that any positive changes are because of the radiation. That would likely be the end of January.

While there, we want to ask Rugo her opinion about the recent news from Cleveland Clinic’s Cohort 1 Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) vaccine clinical trial results. If you haven’t heard or read about it, I invite you to check it out. Here are a few links to early December news releases. (PR News Wire (12/6/23); Clinical Trials Arena (12/7/23); ABC News – Good Morning America (12/11/23).

May your holidays be magical, and may 2024 shine brightly on us all.

Be strong, go with your heart, and believe in miracles because anything… anything can happen. —Marlo Javidando