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betterdazeahead
betterdazeahead Member Posts: 77
edited January 2019 in Radiation Therapy - Before, During, and After

Hi All!


I have been scheduled to see the radiation oncologist before my BMX - actually the appointment is tomorrow morning, my surgery is next Thursday.

So far on all my tests my lymphs look like they may be ok, of course they said we don't know really until the surgery. My team insisted I have this appointment before my surgery but didn't give me a clear explanation of why. 

Without knowing if I will need radiation - what questions should I be asking or what information should I be looking to hear from the doctor?

TIA

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  • FaceForward
    FaceForward Member Posts: 44
    edited January 2019

    I didn't know what to ask either so to start, I just let my RO talk. By the time he finished, he had answered all the questions I didn't even know I had. From listening to him, I did have a couple more that came to mind that I got to ask him. One was about recurrence stats with vs. without rads and I asked him if there were any less common side effects I should be aware of. Then I told him, this is all new to me but you're the doctor. You tell me, what should I be asking you? Then he took some time to go a little deeper into some of the things we had previously touched on. They want you to talk to the RO before surgery because there are a couple of things, such as breast reconstruction or lymph node involvement the may change the recommended treatment protocol. Just take a notebook and pen with you and use them. For some reason I always feel like I'm holding them up if I take the time to write things down. For this adventure, I've been pretty assertive about taking whatever time I need.

    Good Luck and please let us know how it goes.

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  • AliceBastable
    AliceBastable Member Posts: 3,461
    edited January 2019

    My RO indicated 22 sessions and said, rather vaguely, that it might be different. After I had my set-up for rads, it changed to 33 sessions. I was pissed because I really wanted to be through with everything. We had a rather tense meeting at that point, but then he explained how they don't know until the set-up, which included a CT, exactly what kind of tissue we have and the incision size and depth and node involvement and all sorts of individual factors. So don't take anything as written in stone from the early meeting.

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  • betterdazeahead
    betterdazeahead Member Posts: 77
    edited January 2019

    Thank you both!

    My appointment went well. I had been confused at why the added stress of another appointment without knowing if radiation was in my future. She actually walked into the room apologizing about the team  having me come to her now. BUT she did give me lots of information based off of the "IFs". I am just ready to be over the IFs and know what is going on after my surgery next week. I will go back to her in a month and hopefully there will be no more IFs but a solid plan in place.

    I really appreciate the 2 of you reaching out to me - thanks again!

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