Radiation treatment #1

Pablo's first radiation treatment yesterday went well. I was allowed into the radiation room (called TOMO2) and laying on the table/bed was Pablo's mask. It was quite surreal. I got to hear the explanation of the process and then I had to leave the room. The actual time for the Tomotherapy treatment itself was 6 minutes. We were told in the beginning that Pablo would have 27 treatments but now that they've switched to Tomotherapy, they've added an extra 10 treamtents so he'll have 37 treatments in total. Tomotherapy isn't as aggressive as conventional radiation and adding the 10 extra treatments means each treatment is less harsh than conventional radiation. Side effect severity is lessened because of the lessened harshness of each treatment. Pablo is concerned about hair loss and the nurse said that instead of losing all the hair on that side of his head, it might just thin out. It is going to take at least a week or maybe more before Pablo starts to notice the effects of the Tomotherapy.

So far so good. 1 treatment down, 36 more to go.