Day 150-152
The moment of truth is finally here. Scanxiety over the last two weeks has frazzled me. Have the last four months of chemo paid off? This feeling reminds me of waiting for a final exam score. I was able to take time off and accompany Jackie and her mother to the radiation oncologist. The building was exactly how Jackie explained, a waterfall leading to the front desk and everything was clean and well organized. The doctor was nice and friendly. She took her time repeating everything she told Jackie from before. The results were in fact what she predicted. Jackie started off with three masses. The first PET scan showed 2 masses in her supraclavicular and 1 mass in her mediastinal. Her right supraclavicular mass was taken out for biopsy, her left supraclavicular mass was not larger than her right, and the largest mediastinal mass was 5cm with a metabolic activity level (SUV) of 5.9. Her post results showed no evidence of supraclavicular masses and the mediastinal mass shrunk to 3cm with a SUV of 1.9. The oncologist educated us that normal mass is 1cm and any metabolic level under 2.0 was considered desirable. Overall, Jackie has responded very well with even more mass shrinkage to come.
Her treatment will consist of a 36Gy over a period of 18days. According to studies a treatment of ABVD x4 and 20Gy of radiation gives a 5year survival rate of 97.5%. She will begin treatment in one week. All measurements are extremely precise with lasers and scan. She spent forty minutes with a technician and a CT machine being tattooed up for radiation. Being tattooed for radiation consists of three small marks across the body that help the radiation technician line up the machine to make sure the treatment area is always same.
I am utterly amazed at how awesome the facilities were. There was probably a 3:1 ratio of staff to patients at the office. The dressing rooms were clean with new gowns and robes for patients. They have social workers and dietitians for supportive aid. They have a pet therapy program which has a small puppy that runs up to the patients and stares at you. There is definitely lots of support for patients during this emotional time. All equipment was up to date and very futuristic looking. Each radiation machine was probably similar to a airplane turbine engine. The best part of this whole experience is we are all very confident, comfortable, and optimistic of treatment.