Comments on radiation problems

[Surveyor]

I wonder if some people having problems with the side effects of radiation may be receiving radiation from old machines or doctors that did not adequately plan the treatment. The radiation I had was IMRT that was planned to come in from several different directions to minimize damage to surrounding tissue. I received 7020 rads to the lung and 6600 rads to the adrenal gland the first time and 4500 rads the second time around to the adrenal & a node met (planned to hit both of them at the same time. I had no radiation burns nor internal pain – maybe I was just lucky. I did not know if the fatigue I was suffering from was from the cancer or the radiation, but I really didn’t care – I only wanted to get well. I think part of the battle lengthening our survival time is to research any proposed treatment as much as possible. Go into the treatment knowledgeable and ask questions about any doubts you may have. Don’t hesitate to get a second opinion. Most of us have options to go to other physicians with different skills and different hospitals with different equipment. If you’re not getting better or having serious problems, don’t wait until it is too late to look into other options.

Information about types of radiation can be found at the following links.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/fact ... /radiation

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/conte ... tearea=ETO

[Snowflake]

I did not get burns when I went through radiation, but the two women before and after me, did. Same doctor, same machine...

I think, with a lot of the treatments, there is always the variable of the individual. Everyone truly is unique, some of us had pre-existing conditions, some have drug allergies, skin issues, etc. Each of these variables would figure in when receiving treatment, and sometimes, the other conditions are discovered during treatment. For example, during my hospital stay after surgery, I discovered an allergy to a potent pain reliever - nothing I knew prior to the dose I received.

What did radiation do to me? After effects took out my thyroid and I'm battling the "ability" to gain weight just by breathing. Yee-haw!

[Connie B]

When I did radiation over 11 years ago, I never had fatigue nor did I have radiation burns I got a little red on the chest but didn't burn. And I also did chemo with my radiation. I also know of of others in my LC Support Group that didn't have fatigue or rad burns as well. I have to say everyone is different. I'm not sure what RADS I had, but I do remember them saying they were going to give me all that they could. And I guess after 11 years and still being cancer free it all worked out for me.

And as for what did radiation do for me? So far it's given me 11+ years of life, but I do feel that it is one of the causes of my heart problems today as well. (My Cardiologist made mention that radiation and chemo was the reason I needed a double bypass last year) There is an article in the Cure Magazine regarding Radiation treatments, Chemo treatments and the side effects (either during treatments or years later) it has on the heart.

I also know others that have had very serious problems after undergoing radiation treatments. It's a crap shoot any way you look at it. It can kill some of us or it can give us life.