Phase 2 Completed!

Hello everyone!

So Phase 2 of this treatment process has finally completed. Yesterday was my third and last high-dose radiation treatment (brachytherapy) to the bloody squatter (it's not swearing if I am not English, right?). Boy was that a painful process except the nice relaxation drugs they gave me before every treatment....Ativan is my new friend, she helped me relax, gave me a good nap and was okay with me doing absolutely nothing for a really long time after spending time together.

Each of the treatments consisted of about 5-6 hours spent preparing, inserting instruments and the actual delivery of the radiation to my cervix. Preparing was basically waiting for the drugs to kick in and inserting a catheter (or Foley as they call it). The inserting of the instruments was the most painful part. I called for a lot of litacane jelly since I was/am still sore from the external radiation treatments and am healing my skin/colon/bladder tissues. They used a metal contraption that was inserted into my vagina and attached to the sleeve placed in my cervix. It looked a bit like TV antenna's from my perspective (Tokyo did not tune in). Around the metal contraption is this rubber and metal ring that was basically forced into my vagina because it hurt so bad. If you put your index finger and your thumb in a circle...that is about how big it was. Yesterday, my friend Maria and I were trying to be humorous and when it was inserted I screamed "AH, KELLY CLARKSON" to release the tension. It brought a little smile to my doctor's face when it was done. Once all of the instruments are placed, they do a CT of my body and plan the radiation treatment based on where all of my organs are, the shape and position of the tumor. The planning with the physicists took anywhere from 1-2 hours at which time my drugs gave me a great nap...Then they wheeled me in to the radiation treatment room (which you have all seen in a previous post) and attached probes to the metal antenna's protruding from my vagina. This delivered the radiation (in pellet form) through the probes, around the ring and then removes it after about 11 minutes. This part is not painful at all and I didn't feel the treatment or radiation. Following this, what comes in...must come out! I actually "pushed" out the ring as if I was delivering this thing that brought me pain. Sadly, my closest experience to childbirth....wait, who am I kidding?, I would have begged for an epidural anyway! :-)

So, due to the nature of the cancer cells that I have, the internal radiation was not as successful as we had hoped and was not able to deliver a curable dose of radiation therapy. In my tumor are adenosquamos cells and they particularly more persistent and respond less to the radiation treatment. If they were pure squamos cells, the tumor would just "melt away" according to my doctor. So, phase 3 is now inevitable and I will have surgery to remove at least my cervix and uterus. It is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, July 24th. We will update you about that when we have more information.

Thanks to everyone for your continued thoughts and for sending your love!

Love, Hugs and Good Health!