Sorry I haven't posted for AGES, I've been a little busy. In this post I'll be telling you about the 10 days before my transplant, and what I had in terms of chemo and radiotherapy.
On Tuesday 6th July I was admitted to the ward and room where I'd spend the next 6 weeks. I dropped off my stuff in my room and headed towards the basement of the hospital for radiotherapy. I was starting 4 days of cranial boost radiotherapy. This is where they fire high dose x-rays at my brain. They had to make me a special plastic mask which clips to the table which I laid on for treatment. This stopped me from moving my head, so that they could accurately get the doses of radiotherapy in exactly the right places (see picture). This lasted for about 15 minutes, so it wasn't too bad. A few days later I started my first day of chemo. I had chemo for 3 days and overnight hydration (as well as the cranial boost radiotherapy on some days). After the few days of hefty chemo I had a day off! The side-affects hadn't kicked in too bad yet, but I was confined to my room and would be for a long time now.
Next up was 4 days of TBI (Total Body Irradiation), which would make me feel pretty damn poorly. This treatment affects the whole of my body, as the x-rays are spread so that my whole body gets a dose of the radiation (corr... after all this radiation I must glow in the dark!). I had to lay fairly still for an hour, but I wasn't held in place and they allowed me to listen to my own music whilst I was being treated. By the last day of TBI I was feeling really wiped out, I slept most of the day, and needed a wheelchair to take me to radiotherapy.
The day after my last TBI dose was the day of my transplant, Day 0 (woop!), but I'm gunna save that for my next post, which should be sooner than 3 months away! but no promises :)
thanks guys
Andrew
:)
