Typical Radiation Therapy experience

We asked the RT folks to describe the experience of a typical patient who receives seven weeks (35 treatments) of radiation. Most of the side effects occur because the radiation is damaging healthy tissue on its way to the tumor (see previous post for a description). Although this impact is minimized it is not unusual for an RT patient to experience the following:

Week 1 - secretions in mouth thicken
Week 2 - throat discomfort begins, increasingly dry mouth
Week 3 - patient starts feeling tired during the day
Week 4 - increasing fatigue, increasing throat pain
Week 5 - increasing fatigue, increasing throat pain
Week 6 - pain and fatigue finally plateau and don't get any worse
Week 7 - it's bad, but not getting any worse (there's a bright side!)
-Treatment ends-
Week 8 and 9 - pain and fatigue continues for two to four weeks afterwards

The daily pain typically becomes so intense that the patient can no longer swallow (that's the primary reason Robin has a PEG feeding tube - to get liquid lunches!). Pain management is essential. After just a few weeks the pain level is so high that it is often managed by the patient wearing a long acting Duragesic patch (think "nicotine patch" but this patch contains morphine based drugs), and by the patient taking liquid Hydrocodone (liquid drops since the patient may no longer be able to swallow pills).

After all that explanation the clinician noted that receiving chemotherapy simultaneously can worsen the effects. Presently we are still looking at the bright side of things! Robin already has seen a decrease in symptoms in the last few days - less gagging and less getting sick. So we're looking forward to a few easier days (or maybe a week) before the radiation symptoms become a drag. She's comparing it to a long bike ride - for example riding 100 miles in one day. There are going to be some easy spots and some tough spots along the road, but you keep your self going by focusing on the end goal! In a really tough spot (like a very steep hill) you sometimes focus on just getting through the next few yards and forget about everything else for the moment - the bicyclist's version of taking it "one day at a time".