We slept much better last night knowing this process was beginning. We arrived at the hospital at 9:15 a.m. Bob had to follow a no red meat, no dairy, no sugar, no peanuts and low/no carb diet since yesterday mid afternoon with nothing to eat or drink after midnight. This diet was to prepare for the PET scan.
Bob's first morning appt was for the "simulation" aka "sim". This appt is about 1 1/2 hours. This website http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/radiation explains this process in detail.
The simulation "took longer" than expected because they got a late start.
After the "sim" we met with Dr. Culliney who is the Medical Oncologist who oversees the chemotherapy portion of the treatment. Bob will have Chemo on Day 1 of Week 1, Day 1 of Week 4 and Day 1 of Week 7.
After this meeting on to PET scan...I can tell you Bob was VERY hungry and thirsty at this point...it was well past lunch time...it was around 1:15 when he started... He then was fitted with his new mask and his masked head was fastened to the table so not to move...AND THEN he had to go into the "tube" for about 1/2 hour....http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=PET
Immediately following this test he was able to eat but time was ticking so he grabbed a quick low fat frozen yogurt at a street vendor outside the hospital, ate that then on to more meetings.
Dr. Verona was first to check the fit of his new fluoride trays. Then we met with a nutritionist and during that time was brought to the Speech/Language Pathologist. He has about 20 minutes of exercises to do with his mouth, jaw, tongue, neck and throat for the entire length of treatment. Radiation makes muscles tight and can shrink them so it's very important to do these exercises even when it hurts.
After finishing with speech/voice/saliva test we went to Dr. Culliney's nurse Daisy to pick up paperwork that is necessary to have ready the day treatments begin.
We were on our way out at 5:10 thinking we missed meeting with the social worker. He did not answer his phone so we decided to call it a day. As we were getting on the elevator out pops Darren the social worker saying he had 15-20 minutes he could meet before we leave. We talked to him about talking to the girls and possibility of staying at the Hope Lodge. http://www.hopelodgenyc.org/
We left at 5:40, walked a bit, found a restaurant to eat at--German food-- then took a cab back to the University Club to pick up Bob's bag, walked to parking garage to get car and homeward bound. We arrived home around 10:45.
WOW what a day! It all went quite smoothly for being so last minute. Thank you Louise! She arranged all of it!
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