River: Final (treatment) Friday

[mdlbear]

This morning I had my final radiation treatment. There's a gong in the waiting room, and I hit it on the way out. Very satisfying. 70 grays spread over 28 zaps, weekdays for five weeks and 3 days.

Radiation dosage is measured in grays, which have the units of energy absorbed per unit mass; one gray is one joule per kilogram. I don't have any kind of informtation about how much my prostate weighed at the beginning of this treatment; possibly around 70g; that works out to about 4.9 joules, spread out over five weeks. According to Wikipedia, one joule is approximately the kinetic energy of a 56g tennis ball moving at 6m/s (22km/h). So one of those every week.

I'm still trying to figure out what would make an appropriate way to mark the transition. By the terminology of these days I've been a survivor since my diagnosis. And I'm still being treated with a testosterone blocker -- I have another year and a half or so of that to go. And it'll be maybe another year after that until I know whether the combination actually got all the cancer. So who, or what, am I now?

An impatient, maybe?

Comments

Hurrah

[dialecticdreamer]

I hope that it works for you. The treatments get better every year, it seems, but that doesn't alleviate much of the mental and emotional toll.

Take time to think about how to mark this success, though. You've earned it!

Re: Hurrah

[mdlbear]

Thanks. I have a few ideas.

[azurelunatic]

A new era!

[melchar]

I hope the treatment was effective and never needs to be repeated! Eff cancer and I'm glad you are a survivor.

As for what to do to celebrate the transition? Do something fun & silly is my advice.

[ellenmillion]

Yay for the gong! I hope all the news is good!

[mdlbear]

Thanks! Too soon to tell for sure, but at least I have over a year before I have to worry about it again.

[acelightning73]

I had 25 grays per treatment, for 25 weeks (one per week), same protocol for my abdomen and my chest. I got a bit of intestinal distress because I added some peanuts to my stir-fry, and I got skin burns where I'd gotten a terrible case of prickly heat on my chest.

I was diagnosed with two kinds of cancer, both were treated, and I recovered completely. I think I'd call myself a cancer evader.

[mdlbear]

YIPE! That's a lot! Glad it worked!

[acelightning73]

My friend who's an astrophysicist said he's allowed about 1/100 of that per year. My friend who's a nuclear propulsion tech in the Navy said they all wear radiation badges, and you get in trouble if you get more rads than you should. I just knew when I was six that hiding under my desk would not keep me from being incinerated if they nuked NYC. But, yea, cancer isn't the big scary monster we used to think it was; we now know what to do about it.

[freyjaw]

Conga-rats!

What that makes you is alive. All else is negotiable.

[solarbird]

YAY no more radiation treatments! Congratulations!

That's how I look at it anyway.

[andrewducker]

I'm glad you're still alive, and that the treatment is over.