A new suit

Peripheral stem cell collection ended on Tuesday promptly at 2:30pm. The Neupogen must have worked, because from what I hear, there were plenty of cells. 

I then went to the basement to meet with the radiation oncologist and be fitted for my new suit. Here's what he told me. Radiation will be given to me over three days at two doses per day Tuesday through Thursday, for a total of six sessions. Four of these six sessions will be given to my entire body, with no shielding, i.e., no part will be unexposed. To help minimize the damage, two of the sessions will be given with shields over my lungs, for which I had to be fitted. These shields are custom made (like a fine lead suit) and required an x-ray to determine their precise size and shape. When all is said and done, total I'll have absorbed dose of 12 grays of radiation. 

For reference, a gray is the standard unit of absorbed radiation from ionizing radiation. While reviewing Wikipedia for info on the gray I got an idea of exactly how much radiation I'll be getting. It's kind of funny. During my initial treatment and subsequent scans, I was always concerned. I'd ask myself - 'am I getting too much radiation from this', or 'I hope that all of this additional radiation doesn't give me some kind of cancer' :)

It turns out, that my fears were unfounded, or at least, irrelavent. 

In a casual search of the literature on the Internet I find that the dosages from x-rays and CT scans are measured in 10s to 100s of milligrays. So the total exposure from my 10 or so x-rays and 9 or so CT/PET scans don't even begin to approach the level I'll be exposed to next week.  The list of possible side-effects were enough to make one cringe, but then again, the primary side effect of a relapsed Lymphoma is a good deal worse.

So I now have my schedule for next week. Saturday through Monday I get another fine product of our pharmaceutical research industry - palifermin (Kepivance). This is intended to reduce the one of the primary side effects of the radiation - oral mucositis. My understanding is that this is a pretty bad side effect to get. On Tuesday through Thursday, I get radiation.  One day off, and then the high dose chemo starts.

More later!