First RO appointment... yikes.

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berries
berries Member Posts: 277
edited October 2019 in Radiation Therapy - Before, During, and After

I am almost 4 weeks post mastectomy, starting chemo on 10/24 and will be doing radiation following. I have my first appointment with my radiation oncologist today where he and my BS will determine if I will need a ALND or I can get by with radiation after chemo. My BS seems to think that I could do without the surgery given 4/4 nodes, but he said it was important to speak to my RO.

I am meeting with him today, what can expect in the first meeting? I'm pretty nervous...

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  • Moderators
    Moderators Member Posts: 25,912
    edited October 2019
    Hi vmb!

    Until you get responses from our members, you may want to take a look at some very helpful information here:

    We hope this helps!

    The Mods

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  • edj3
    edj3 Member Posts: 2,076
    edited October 2019

    At my first meeting with my RO, she discussed the plan and what to expect. At the second meeting, she did the mapping (which is a lot of scanning) and I also got three of the four micro-dot tattoos needed to ensure the radiation hit exactly what it should, no more no less.

    On me, those micro-dot tattoos look like one of the many tiny, tiny moles I already had. She also had me do the deep inspiration breathing to move my ribs up and my heart and lungs down (my cancer is on the left side). You do that to keep any residual radiation scatter away from your heart and lungs.

    At the very first radiation appointment when I was actually radiated, I got the fourth and final tattoo. The session itself lasted about 10 minutes, and that's including getting changed, telling them my name and birthday, and getting on the table and then zapped.

    The normal radiation treatment included two zaps (this was whole breast)--I had 15 of those, one a day every work day. Then the last five were boosts, far more targeted to where the tumor had been--those were one zap each and pretty short.

    Hope that helps!

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  • moth
    moth Member Posts: 4,800
    edited October 2019

    My first appointment with the RO was a consultation, confirming my history & diagnosis, doing a quick physical exam, and then giving me their recommendations. It was about a 45 appointment where we talked about risks/benefits & then they gave me a printout of their recommendation. There were some options regarding the type of radiation treatment, how many doses and the timing so we did discuss several possibilities. There was lots of time to ask questions and I was also able to call back later with an additional question.

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