Brachytherapy???

[Bev'sSister]

Any knowledge,experience, ideas or opinions on this procedure would be very much appreciated. I think this is what they are considering for my sister to remove a tumor that is bearing down on her windpipe.

[Ry]

My husband is in the process of this now. He has had one treatment and will have the other two starting next week, one week apart. We were not prepared for how long the procedure would take. It involves quite a bit of time while they calculate the amount and placement of the radiation beads.

The pulmonologist placed wires through the nose into the lung. Then John had to travel by ambulance to the cancer center where they did the bracytherapy (hopefully your sister doesn't have to travel and can have it in one place). He was on the table a long time before the actual procedure started. I think he would have handled this better if he was not already sick when it started. He was fighting an infection and going ahead with the procedure did not help. The most uncomfortable thing was having the wires down his throat when he would have to cough.

I hope she does well with it.

Rochelle

[raeh]

My dad had this done, a total of four times, at two week intervals. He did go to outpatient, they placed the thin catheter/wire through his nose down toward where his lung mass was, then they took him over to the radiation center. The entire process was at least 4 hours each time. They medicated him, but it always started to wear off at the end and it was hard for him to lie flat. BUT, it did help. It opened up his bronchi and actually did help him feel like he could breathe better, and it actually was directly focused on his biggest mass and that was a plus, too. Good luck.