And Now…The Mask of Radiation Therapy
I had a long afternoon at the doctor’s office yesterday. This time it’s the radiologist who is going to be responsible for my radiation treatments. This particular episode of my treatment is not one I’ve been looking forward to, necessarily, for obvious reasons. I’ll repeat them here:
- Radiation, while very effective for treating people in my condition, has side effects such as fatigue and more notably for me personally: hair loss. I’ve been blessed (thus far) without the side of my family’s gene pool for male pattern baldness occurring earlier in my young adult life. While I’m not particularly vain about my head of hair, I never once considered it would take disease treatment to make me lose it (or parts of it). So I’m going to have to learn to live somewhat without hair. I’ve yet to decide what to do: go entirely bald or just wait and see what the "fallout" area looks like once the side effect of hair loss becomes a factor and deal with it then.
Also on a side note, I had been anticipating participating in my church’s annual Easter Pageant. It’s the largest outdoor easter pageant in the world according to the website: http://www.easterpageant.org/. At any rate, the fatigue factor, rehearsals and performances, and the timing of my daily treatments (which are to be as consecutive as possible) may limit my ability to play my small part. I sure hope not! I’ll keep everyone updated.
What is sort of cool about the consutation appointment yesterday is they formed the head-mask they use for reference on where to aim the energy beams. It’s also to keep my head stationary while I’m strapped to the equipment that delivers the treatment. Word has it that I get to keep this once my rounds of therapy are over. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it yet…anyway here’s a picture of it:
March 11th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Baldness has it’s benefits, Jeff. Namely, I never worry about what my hair looks like. That and I have excuses to wear hats in a lot more places. Hope you are doing well with your treatment!
March 19th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
@Dalin, I’m looking extensively at different types of hats in anticipation of how much I’ll need to cover up. So far nothing’s happened but it’s only been a week. Side effects aren’t expected to show up until after the second week.