Cathy had her first day of radiation. Her appointment was at 7:45am, and she didn't leave until the early afternoon. They had to fit her for something she wears on her head to concentrate the radiation at the right areas of her brain. That was a long and uncomfortable process (a lot of heat and pressure was applied), but of course, Cathy was strong and made it through. Then she had to have X-Rays taken to pinpoint the specific areas to concentrate. AND THEN she was finally ready to receive radiation. In addition to concentrating on the lesions on her brain, she's also receiving radiation on the spot on her spine. They are not focusing on the breast cancer just yet, as they are probably eventually going to perform a mastectomy once radiation and chemotherapy has run it's course.
This process will continue for an entire month. She will have weekends off, as well as Memorial Day. The doctors said she might lose some of her hair and experience nausea and fatigue. She may also develop a lump in her throat as a reaction to the radiation, so they are holding off on chemotherapy for the time being because it would add to that lump as well and affect Cathy's breathing.
Later this week or early next week, Cathy is also going to have a PET scan (Positron Emission Tomography). For more info on this, please follow this link: http://www.petscaninfo.com/zportal/portals/pat/cancer
To sum it up, this scan lights up any spots of cancer in the entire body so the doctors can pinpoint the source of cancer and treat that area aggressively.
Cathy's again in good spirits despite it all. She does have a bit of a headache today, but she made sure to reiterate that I needed to post to update everyone on what's going on.
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