Radiation

I was dead set against radiation, but promised Dr. M I would speak to the guy and keep an open mind. Today I had my consult, and I decided to go ahead and do it.

He explained it very thoroughly, how they would do it, what exactly they are aiming at (the chest wall) and WHY (the chemo kills any stray cells throughout the body but can't always get to the ones that may be left in the chest wall, mostly due to healing from surgery). He said side effects are much less than they were a few years ago when friends told me they still feel like they're sunburned.

Of course there is no way to tell if I actually NEED this. Like Dr. M said it's all a gamble. But I feel better about it and am going to go through with it.

We will start 3 weeks from my last chemo (so 4 weeks from today). I go in 3 weeks to do a "model" so they can effectively plan my treatment. I will go in every weekday for 6 weeks and it should take no more than 30 minutes a day (the actual procedure takes 3 min but there is setup time). The nurse says there is normally no waiting unless there was an emergency of some sort.

This will put off my surgeries but it's important to get started with radiation right away and not wait.

So, see? I can keep an open mind.